Landau theory for smectic-A -- hexatic-B coexistence in smectic films

Abstract

We explain theoretically peculiarities of the smectic A -- hexatic B equilibrium phase coexistence in a finite temperature range recently observed experimentally in free standing smectic films [I.A.Zaluzhnyy et al., Physical Review E, volume 98, 052703 (2018)]. We quantitatively describe this unexpected phenomenon within Landau phase transitions theory assuming that the film state is close to a tricritical point. We found that the surface hexatic order leads to diminishing the phase coexistence range as the film thickness decreases shrinking it at some minimal film thickness, of the order of the hexatic correlation length. We established universal laws for the temperature width of the phase coexistence in terms of the reduced variables. Our theory is in agreement with the existing experimental data.