Phase Structures of Calamitic Liquid Crystals

Liquid crystals, therefore, are classically defined as those orientationally ordered phases that occur between the breakdown of positional/translational order on melting a solid, and the breakdown of orientational order on melting to a liquid [3]. However, for the purposes of discussing mesophase structures, all of the ordered states that occur between the increase in molecular rotational freedom on heating of the solid 

As with other states of matter, the meso-phases are indefinitely stable at defined temperatures and pressures. Mesophases observed above the melt point during the heating process are stable and termed enan-tiotropic [5], whereas those phases that oc- 

2 Melting Processes of Calamitic Thermotropic Liquid Crystals 

The loss of order in the melting of the smectic state can be broken down further into smaller increments via the changes in the packing order of the molecules. These incremental changes correspond to the formation of 13 structurally distinct layered modifications classified by miscibility stud- 

Over the last twenty years, however, X-ray diffraction techniques have been used to investigate the structures of the smectic modifications [8-13]. This has led to combining miscibility classification with structural observations. Thus, certain structural features, such as the extent of the positional ordering, tilt orientational ordering, packing structure, and bond orientational ordering can be associated with each individual 

---

Goodby J W 1998 Phase structures of calamitic liquid crystals Handbook of Liquid Crystals Vol 2A. Low Molecular Weight Liquid Crystals I ed D Demus, J Goodby, G W Gray, H-W Spiess and V Vill 1998 (New York Wiley-VCH)... 

Chapter I Phase Structures of Calamitic Liquid Crystals.3... 

---