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Abstract:
Ellipsometric studies have been conducted on freely suspended films of chiral smectic liquid crystals. In the temperature range of the smectic-C phase, we observe sharp steplike changes of the ellipsometric quantity Δ indicating sudden inversions of the molecular tilt direction in single smectic layers near the surface. These tilt inversion transitions are strongly hysteretic with temperature differences up to 10 K between heating and cooling runs. Although the films possess two identical free surfaces, metastable states occur in which the tilt is inverted at only one surface.
