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Abstract:
Comparative x-ray and dielectric measurements have been made on a liquid crystal exhibiting a smectic-A–chiral-smectic-C (smectic-C*) transition in bulk and confined geometries. It is observed that confining the material in Anopore membranes having 200-nm pore size leads to the following features: (1) the temperature dependence of the x-ray layer spacing shows a qualitatively different behavior, (2) in the smectic−A phase the soft mode relaxation frequency increases by a factor of 2.5, and (3) in the smectic−C* phase the relaxation frequency of the Goldstone mode increases dramatically by as much as 400 times, perhaps owing to a partial unwinding of the helix by the surface induced field.
