Measurements of tilt angle and heat capacity in the vicinity of one smectic-<i>A–</i>chiral<i>–</i>smectic-<i>C</i>transition

Abstract

Both high-resolution heat-capacity and tilt-angle measurements have been carried out near the smectic-A--chiral--smectic-C transition of p-(n-decyloxy)benzylidene-p-amino-(2-methlbutyl)cinnamate (DOBAMBC). The extended mean-field theory, suggested by Huang and Viner, for the smectic-A--smectic-C (or chiral--smectic-C) transition, requires a unique relationship between the tilt angle and the anomalous part of the heat capacity. Here we demonstrate this relationship by our experimental results on both heat capacity and tilt angle. This provides a strong additional support for the extended mean-field model in describing the smectic-A--chiral--smectic-C transition.