No abstract

Computer-enhanced polarized video microscopy has been used to study the discrete layer-by-layer surface ordering transitions of freely suspended films of 4-(«-nonyloxy)benzylidene-4-(«-butyl)aniline (90.4). Stable tilted hexatic smectic-7 surface layers form on both free surfaces of the 2D-liquid smectic-^ interior in a monolayer, bilayer, trilayer, . . . sequence as T-+ T c . The appearance of the first ten surface layers is described very well by the simple power-law form, L -Lot ~1 /3 , predicted for the surface freezing transition in a system with van der Waals forces.

No abstract