Unexpected electric-field-induced antiferroelectric liquid crystal phase in the SmCα* temperature range and the discrete flexoelectric effect

Field-induced phase transitions in an antiferroelectric liquid crystal using the pyroelectric effect

The antiferroelectric liquid crystal (AFLC) under investigation possesses different helical polar phases. Measurements of pyroelectric response of these phases as a function of temperature and bias field have elucidated the ability of this method for investigating the nature of antiferroelectric phases and phase transitions under the bias field. The pyroelectric signal as a function of the bias...

Reentrant synclinic phase in an electric-field-temperature-phase diagram for enantiomeric mixtures of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal.

The threshold electric field E(th) for a transition from the anticlinic to the synclinic phase of enantiomeric mixtures of the liquid crystal TFMHPOBC was measured as a function of temperature T and enantiomeric excess X. For small X the phase boundary curve on a temperature-electric-field phase diagram exhibits the phase sequence synclinic-anticlinic-reentrant synclinic on decreasing the tempe...

Threshold Flexoelectric Effect in Nematic Liquid Crystal

Field-induced phase transitions in antiferroelectric liquid crystals.

A theoretical study is made of the process by which an antiferroelectric smectic liquid crystal undergoes a field-induced transition to ferroelectric alignment. We find that for cells of moderate thickness the initial departure from antiferroelectric alignment occurs as a continuous Fréedericksz transition. The following transition from partial alignment to complete ferroelectric ordering may o...

Flexoelectric polarisation effects in nematic liquid crystal phase gratings

Nematic phase gratings have been studied in which a planar nematic layer of thickness 17.2 μm is sandwiched between two glass substrates coated with an alignment polymer. The upper substrate is a continuous earth plane and the lower substrate has a patterned electrode of interdigitated stripes (electrodes and gaps are both 40 μm wide). Reorientation of the nematic liquid crystal occurs in respo...