Influence of confinement in controlled-pore glass on the layer spacing of smectic- a liquid crystals.

A detailed x-ray scattering study has been performed in the temperature range of the smectic- A phase for the liquid crystal compounds dodecylcyanobiphenyl (12CB) and octylcyanobiphenyl (8CB) confined in different controlled-pore glasses (CPGs) characterized by their average void radius R . On decreasing the temperature in bulk samples the layer thickness is increasing for 12CB and decreasing for 8CB, respectively. In nontreated CPG samples the layers dilate significantly with respect to the bulk liquid crystal. In order to explain the layer thickness behavior on varying temperature and R , one has to take into account molecular details of the liquid crystalline samples as well as memory effects.