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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 19: Poster: Interfaces and Thin Films

CPP 19.8: Poster

Dienstag, 15. März 2011, 18:00–20:00, P2

Structures in molecular thin smectic liquid crystal films — •Benjamin Schulz and Christian Bahr — MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Bunsenstraße 10, 37073 Göttingen

We present a convenient technique to create thin films of the smectic liquid crystal 8CB with a defined number of molecular layers on silicon surfaces. Using AFM- and ellipsometry-measurements we observe characteristic porous surface textures that are common to all films with a thickness of up to 5 layers. Even though those films show liquid-like mobility of the molecules, the structures turn out to remain stable on the time scales of days. Additionally, the properties of the films are studied when heated into the nematic and isotropic temperature range of the bulk material. For films with a thickness of only one smectic layer, a suppression of the nematic phase is observed, whereas the other films exhibit a shift of the phase transition temperature.