Frank’s constant in the hexatic phase

Frank's constant in the hexatic phase.

Using videomicroscopy data of a two-dimensional colloidal system the bond-order correlation function G{6} is calculated and used to determine both the orientational correlation length xi{6} in the liquid phase and the modulus of orientational stiffness, Frank's constant F{A}, in the hexatic phase. The latter is an anisotropic fluid phase between the crystalline and the isotropic liquid phase. F...

X-ray studies of the hexatic phase in liquid crystals with a crystal-B-hexatic-B-smectic-A phase sequence.

Hexatic phase in the two-dimensional Gaussian-core model.

We present a Monte Carlo simulation study of the phase behavior of two-dimensional classical particles repelling each other through an isotropic Gaussian potential. As in the analogous three-dimensional case, a reentrant-melting transition occurs upon compression for not too high temperatures, along with a spectrum of waterlike anomalies in the fluid phase. However, in two dimensions melting is...

Existence of a hexatic phase in porous media.

Molecular simulations for simple fluids in narrow slit-shaped carbon pores exhibit crystal-hexatic and hexatic-liquid transitions that are consistent with Kosterlitz-Thouless-Halperin-Nelson-Young theory. The temperature range over which the hexatic phase is stable is dramatically widened under confinement. Remarkably, the transitions, which are continuous for a single adsorbed layer, become we...

Experimental Observation of Continuous Melting into a Hexatic Phase

This paper reports the results of an x ray-diffuse scattering study of the melting transition of monolayer xenon on the surface of single crystals of exfoliated graphite. It is found that the two-dimensional xenon solid melts into an orientationally ordered liquid (or hexatic) phase. The temperature dependence of the orientational correlations suggests that the hexatic phase exists as a consequ...