Abstract
We have studied the layer compression modulus B for smectic liquid crystals near the SmA–SmC * , SmA–SmC A * , SmA–ferrielectric phase transitions. B shows a significant pretransitional softening due to the order parameter fluctuations above the phase transitions, suggesting that these phase transitions are not of the Landau mean-field type. We also measured B near the nematic-SmA and SmA–CryB phase transitions. In the vicinity of the nematic-SmA phase transition, critical exponent of B is in very good agreement with that determined by light scattering. At the SmA–CryB phase transition, B suddenly increases without pretransitional behavior.
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