Abstract
Null transmission ellipsometry and depolarized reflected light microscopy have been performed on freestanding films of two achiral meta‐substituted three‐ring compounds. These compounds exhibit two different tilted smectic phases, SmC1 and SmC2. Our studies confirmed previous results obtained from another achiral meta‐substituted three‐ring compound that the SmC1 and SmC2 phases are SmC and SmCA, respectively.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, Solid State Chemistry Program under Grant No. DMR‐0106122. X.F.H. wishes to acknowledge financial support from the Stanwood Johnston Memorial Fellowship, University of Minnesota.
Notes
In this discussion, we ignore the effect of longitudinal polarization on the laser beam.