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Thermotropic nematic and smectic order in silica glass nanochannels
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2010-10-23
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Journal
Volume
97
Issue
15
Article Number
153124
Citation
Applied Physics Letters 97 (15): 153124 (2010-10-23)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
ArXiv ID
Publisher
American Institute of Physics
Optical birefringence measurements on a rod-like liquid crystal (8OCB), imbibed in silica channels (7 nm diameter), are presented and compared to the thermotropic bulk behavior. The orientational and positional order of the confined liquid evolves continuously at the paranematic-to-nematic and sizeably broadened at the nematic-to-smectic order transition, resp., in contrast to the discontinuous and well-defined second-order character of the bulk transitions. A Landau-de-Gennes analysis reveals identical strengths of the nematic and smectic ordering fields (imposed by the walls) and indicates that the smectic order is more affected by quenched disorder (originating in channel tortuosity and roughness) than the nematic transition.
Subjects
Physics - Soft Condensed Matter
Physics - Soft Condensed Matter
Physics - Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall Effect
Physics - Materials Science
Physics - Chemical Physics
DDC Class
530: Physik
More Funding Information
This work has been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the priority program SP 1164, Nano- and Microfluidics, Grant No. Hu 850/2.