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Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Coupling between tilt and polar orders in liquid crystal phases formed from achiral bent shaped molecules
Toledano1, Martins, Figueiredo Neto AM
1Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 66318, 05315-970, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil and Groupe Structure des Materiaux Sous Conditions Extreinsertion markmes, SNBL /ESRF, 38043 Grenoble Cedex, France.
Abstract:
A phenomenological description is given of the mesophases which may arise below a liquid formed from achiral molecules possessing a transverse dipole, as the result of a coupling between their tilt and polar orders. Six stable mesophases are found. Two of them have a cholesteric biaxial structure. The others display antiferroelectric or ferrielectric, incommensurately modulated, structures with in-plane or out-of-plane spontaneous polarization. The in-plane polarized structures become unstable under application of a longitudinal electric field. Other field-induced effects are discussed.
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