Thermotropic nematic and smectic order in silica glass nanochannels

Optical birefringence measurements on a rodlike liquid crystal, octyloxycyanobiphenyl, imbibed in silica channels (7 nm diameter), are presented and compared to the thermotropic bulk behavior. The orientational and positional order of the confined liquid evolves continuously at the paranematic-to-nematic and sizeably broadened at the nematic-to-smectic order transition, respectively, in contrast to the discontinuous and well-defined second-order character of the bulk transitions. A Landau-de Gennes analysis reveals identical strengths of the nematic and smectic ordering fields (imposed by the walls) and indicates that the smectic order is more affected by quenched disorder (originating in channel tortuosity and roughness) than the nematic transition.(C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3502595]