Molecules of liquid crystals adsorbed on graphite were observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Liquid crystals of both smectic and nematic phases provided periodic STM images of 3-nm-spacing lines, seemingly composed of molecules with their axes vertical to the line. Detailed investigation of the images revealed that several different patterns existed in smectic liquid crystal. On the other hand, nematic liquid crystal exhibited one reproducible pattern. Monolayer, multilayer, and dimer-based molecular arrangements are discussed. Models for the molecular arrangement of the nematic liquid crystal are proposed.
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Shigeno et al. (1990) studied this question.
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