Nematic--to--Smectic-A Transition in Aerogel

Details Nematic--to--Smectic-A Transition in Aerogel Nematic--to--Smectic-A Transition in Aerogel

1997-01-31

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9702011v2

Physical Review Letters 79, 4214 (1997)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

version to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett., minor changes and references added

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.4214

We study a model for the Nematic--Smectic-A (NA) transition in aerogel, and find that even arbitrarily weak quenched disorder (i.e., low aerogel density) destroys translational (smectic) order. Ignoring elastic anharmonicities, but keeping anharmonic couplings to disorder, leads to the prediction that there is no ``Bragg glass'' phase in this system: it is riddled with dislocation loops induced by the quenched disorder. Orientational (nematic) order is destroyed as well, as is the thermodynamically sharp NA transition, in agreement with recent experimental results.

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