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Free keywords:
Liquid crystals; Ultrathin films; Surface-induced order
Abstract:
We report on ellipsometric measurements on freely suspended liquid-crystal films of two compounds possessing smectic-A and ferroelectric smectic-C phases. One of the compounds shows in addition an antiferroelectric smectic-CA phase. The comparison of the surface-induced order near the smectic-A to smectic-C transition indicates that the latter compound shows a considerably reduced coupling of the molecular tilt in neighbouring layers possessing the same tilt directions.