CYLINDRICAL, SPHERICAL AND TOROIDAL LAYERING OF SMECTIC C LIQUID CRYSTALS

A Continuum Theory of Chiral Smectic C Liquid Crystals

We formulate a nonlinear continuum theory of flow of chiral smectic C liquid crystals (C*) involving molecular director, layer order parameter, polarization vector, flow velocity, and hydrostatic pressure fields. In addition to chiral orientational ordering, smectic C* phases also present positional ordering, with molecular centers of mass arranged in one dimensional layers. The nonzero tilt an...

A simple molecular theory of smectic C liquid crystals

In the previous chapters we have described several novel phase transitions exhibited by compounds with molecules having longitudinal components of permanent electric dipole moments. As described in Chapter-1, in the smectic C (SmC) phase, the constituent molecules are tilted in the smectic layers. The SmC liquid crystal is made of compounds with molecules having lateral components of dipole mom...

Triply periodic smectic liquid crystals.

Twist-grain-boundary phases in smectics are the geometrical analogs of the Abrikosov flux lattice in superconductors. At large twist angles, the nonlinear elasticity is important in evaluating their energetics. We analytically construct the height function of a pi2 twist-grain-boundary phase in smectic-A liquid crystals, known as Schnerk's first surface. This construction, utilizing elliptic fu...

New electromechanical effect in chiral smectic C* liquid crystals

Optically induced periodic structures in smectic-C liquid crystals.

We explore periodic structures of smectic-C (SmC) liquid crystals, induced optically by a polarization grating. The studied cells contain a passive surface of rubbed polyimide and an active photosensitive substrate of azo-dye doped polyimide. In a nematic phase the director field can be periodic independent of the angle between the grating vector and the rubbing direction. In the SmA phase peri...