Morphology and ordering in thin liquid-crystal films on flat glass substrates.

Results of a high-resolution x-ray reflectivity study of growth morphology and ordering of thin liquid-crystal films on flat glass substrate are reported. An adsorbed bilayer of crystalline order, under three dimensional clusters, was found to persist well beyond the nematic to isotropic transition. This adsorbed layer appears to be related to the surface memory effects in liquid-crystal devices. The morphology of these films can be described by the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode