The influence of boundary conditions on the smectic A-C* phase transition has been studied. From a consideration of the free energy under the anchoring condition with planar orientation of moelcules on two boundaries, it is shown that the phase transition temperature from the smectic-A to smectic-C phases decreases with decreasing layer thickness. This is confirmed by experiment.
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Pikin et al. (1981) studied this question.
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