Freedericksz transition in an anticlinic liquid crystal

The Freedericksz geometry is used to show 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 the 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, resulting in a nonzero polarization that couples to the applied field. Measurements of E(th) as a function of temperature are reported. Related quasielastic light scattering measurements demonstrate that acoustic Goldstone mode fluctuations are quenched by a dc electric field E>E(th). At high fields a transition to the synclinic phase occurs via solitary waves.