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Abstract:
We report an ellipsometric study of freely suspended films of a chiral liquid-crystal compound possessing the phase sequence smectic-C–smectic-A–isotropic with a very broad (67 K) smectic-A phase range. We observe a smectic-C–smectic-A surface transition which is situated more than 60 K above the bulk smectic-C–smectic-A transition temperature. Possible reasons for this unusually large temperature shift are discussed.