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PUBLICATIONS

Vapor deposition of a nonmesogen prepares highly structured organic glasses

Published

Author(s)

Camille Bishop, Jacob L. Thelen, Eliot Gann, Michael F. Toney, Lian Yu, Dean DeLongchamp, Mark D. Ediger

Abstract

We show that glasses with aligned smectic liquid crystal-like order can be produced by physical vapor deposition of a molecule without any equilibrium liquid crystal phases. Smectic-like order in vapor-deposited films was characterized by wide-angle X-ray scattering. A surface equilibration mechanism predicts the highly smectic-like vapor-deposited structure to be a result of significant vertical anchoring at the surface of the equilibrium liquid, and NEXAFS spectroscopy orientation analysis confirms this prediction. Understanding of the mechanism enables informed engineering of different levels of smectic order in vapor-deposited glasses to suit various applications. The preparation of a glass with orientational and translational order from a non-liquid crystal opens up an exciting new paradigm for accessing extreme anisotropy in glassy solids.
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Volume
116
Issue
43
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908445116
Local Download
Condensed matter

Citation

Bishop, C. , Thelen, J. , Gann, E. , Toney, M. , Yu, L. , DeLongchamp, D. and Ediger, M. (2019), Vapor deposition of a nonmesogen prepares highly structured organic glasses, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online], https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908445116, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=928120 (Accessed October 9, 2025)

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Created October 21, 2019, Updated October 12, 2021
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