X-Ray Observation of a Stacked Hexatic Liquid-CrystalBPhase

Abstract
X-ray studies have been performed on a new liquid-crystal material which exhibits a noncrystalline B phase. Using free-standing liquid-crystal film techniques, we find that this B phase has short-range in-plane positional correlations but long-range, three-dimensional, sixfold bond-orientational order. We interpret our results in terms of a system of interacting two-dimensional hexatic layers.