Abstract
A short review is given of recent X-ray diffraction studies of the phases and phase transitions of thermotropic liquid crystals. The areas covered are twist-grain-boundary phases, antiferroelectric phases studied with resonant X-ray diffraction and smectic phases within gel structures. In all areas, X-ray diffraction has played a key role. Nonetheless, open questions remain: the nature of the smectic C variant of the twist-grain-boundary phase, the origin of antiferroelectric phases, and whether novel Bragg glass states exist for smectic A gel samples.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 112-121 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Acta Crystallographica Section A: Foundations of Crystallography |
Volume | 61 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2005 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- TWIST-GRAIN-BOUNDARY
- SMECTIC-A-PHASE
- II SUPERCONDUCTORS
- CRITICAL-BEHAVIOR
- ASTERISK PHASE
- C PHASES
- SCATTERING
- POINT
- ORDER
- FIELD