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Unique approach to measuring temperature variation of surface tension in smectic liquid crystals

We have measured the temperature variation of surface tension, σ, in freestanding films of three liquid-crystal compounds. To do so, we have constructed a curvature-pressure tensiometer that uses a feedback loop to hold constant the curvature of a film while the temperature of the system is smoothly...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review of scientific instruments 2003-12, Vol.74 (12), p.5151-5155
Main Authors: Veum, M., Messman, P., Liu, Z. Q., Huang, C. C., Janarthanan, N., Hsu, C. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We have measured the temperature variation of surface tension, σ, in freestanding films of three liquid-crystal compounds. To do so, we have constructed a curvature-pressure tensiometer that uses a feedback loop to hold constant the curvature of a film while the temperature of the system is smoothly ramped. The apparatus enables us to obtain the temperature variation of σ in a continuous manner with resolution in σ of ∼0.2%. We interpret reproducible features of our data in terms of phase transitions.
ISSN:0034-6748
1089-7623
DOI:10.1063/1.1623629