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Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Freedericksz transition in an anticlinic liquid crystal
1Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
Abstract:
It is shown experimentally that a very-long-pitch, surface-stabilized, anticlinic liquid crystal undergoes a two-step electric-field-induced transition to the synclinic phase. The liquid crystal remains undistorted below a threshold field E(th). For E>E(th), a Freedericksz transition occurs, wherein molecules in adjacent smectic layers undergo unequal azimuthal rotations about the layer normal. At higher fields a transition to the synclinic phase occurs via solitary waves.
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