Abstract
Free-standing monodomain thick films of three liquid crystalline compounds were examined by x-ray scattering. These compounds exhibit a unique enantiotropic crystal-B\char21{}hexatic-B\char21{}smectic-A phase sequence with no evidence of herringbone order. The hexatic order parameter ${\mathit{C}}_{6}$ changes in the hexatic phase with critical exponent \ensuremath{\beta}=0.15\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03. Temperature dependence of the in-plane positional order correlation length suggests a strongly first-order hexatic-B to crystal-B phase transition with indiscernible enthalpy change.
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