Simple Landau model of the smectic- A-isotropic phase transition

• DOI: 10.1007/s101890170111
• Publication Date: 2002-10-15T14:53:15Z
• Authors: P.K. Mukherjee; H. Pleiner; H.R. Brand
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

A simple Landau-type free energy function is presented to describe the smectic-A-isotropic phase transition. Varying the coupling between orientational and positional order parameters, a smectic-A-isotropic or a nematic-isotropic phase transition occurs. Within this model the smectic-A-isotropic phase transition is found to be always more strongly first order than the nematic-isotropic phase transition. The theoretical results are found to be in good agreement with all published experimental results.