https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2003-00088-4
Universal non-monotonic smectic fluctuations of liquid crystal films in a magnetic field
Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal
de Alagoas, 57072-970 Maceió - AL, Brazil
Corresponding author: a marcelo@ising.fis.ufal.br
Received:
7
January
2003
Published online:
1
April
2003
Free-standing liquid crystal films with positive diamagnetic
susceptibility can have the smectic ordering enhanced by an
external field applied perpendicular to the plane layers. Within a
quadratic functional integral approach, we investigate the
interplay between the smectic order induced by an external field
H and that due to the surface tension γ between the film
and the surrounding gas. We find that the average smectic
fluctuation is a non-monotonic function of film thickness, with a
characteristic thickness scale 
delimiting the predominance
of surface tension and magnetic field effects. This characteristic
thickness obeys simple asymptotic power-law relations as a
function of the ordering terms which allows us to represent the
average smectic fluctuations in a universal scaling form.
PACS: 61.30.Hn – Surface phenomena: alignment, anchoring, anchoring transitions, surface-induced layering, surface-induced ordering, wetting, prewetting transitions, and wetting transitions / 61.30.Gd – Orientational order of liquid crystals; electric and magnetic field effects on order / 61.30.Dk – Continuum models and theories of liquid crystal structure
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2003
