External-field-induced tricritical point in a fluctuation-driven nematic-smectic-A transition
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-10-31 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
We study theoretically the effect of an external field on the nematic-smectic-A (NA) transition close to the tricritical point, where fluctuation effects govern the qualitative behavior of the transition. An external field suppresses nematic director fluctuations, by making them massive. For a fluctuation-driven first-order transition, we show that an external field can drive the transition second-order. In an appropriate liquid crystal system, we predict the required magnetic field to be of order 10 T. The equivalent electric field is of order .
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9905045,
title = {External-field-induced tricritical point in a fluctuation-driven nematic-smectic-A transition},
author = {Ranjan Mukhopadhyay and Anand Yethiraj and John Bechhoefer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9905045},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
revtex, 4 pages, 1 figure; revised version, some equations have been modified