X-ray studies of a homologous series of rod-shaped liquid crystal molecules with one tail perfluorinated and the other protonated, reveal large decreases in the smectic A layer spacing with increasing temperature. These materials form unique dimer phases in which the smectic layer spacing is dependent on the length of the perfluorinated tail and independent of the length of the protonated tail. The chain statistics of the perfluorinated tail significantly influence the thermal expansion coefficient since the length of the fluorinated tail defines the smectic layer spacing. Thermal expansion coefficients for the layer spacing observed here are negative and nearly an order of magnitude greater than for typical protonated rod-shaped thermotropic liquid crystals in the SA phase.