Abstract
We report a high-resolution x-ray study of the fluctuations in the nematic and smectic- phases in heptylphenyl nitrobenzoloxybenzoate. As a function of decreasing temperature, the fluctuations evolve from an incommensurate region, through an intermediate region of coexisting (competing) incommensurate and smectic- fluctuations, to a region dominated by pretransitional smectic- fluctuations which exhibit a phase-lockin transition. This behavior directly confirms the current theoretical description of the smectic- and smectic- phases as alternatives to the incommensurate phase.
- Received 8 November 1986
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.57.432
©1986 American Physical Society