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Updated: Jul 30, 2026

Preparation of Monodomain Liquid Crystal Elastomers and Liquid Crystal Elastomer Nanocomposites
Published on: February 6, 2016
Ellipsometric studies of synclinic and anticlinic arrangements in liquid crystal films
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Abstract:
The molecular arrangements in liquid crystal freestanding films are studied when smectic C* surface ordering occurs above the bulk smectic A to smectic C* transition temperature. Details of the resulting structures are resolved using ellipsometry. The behavior of the film is compound dependent. Below a critical electric field, either a synclinic or anticlinic structure may be present depending on the magnitude of the bulk spontaneous polarization. A model is presented in which the low-field anticlinic arrangement results from the interaction between polarization fluctuations at the two surfaces.
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