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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Anticlinic coupling between layers of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal
M Kimura1, D Kang, C Rosenblatt
1Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA.
Abstract:
The anticlinic interlayer coupling coefficient U was evaluated as a function of temperature for a pitch-compensated liquid crystal by optical observation of the electric field-induced optic mode. U was found to exhibit an unusual "S-shaped" dependence on temperature, with values ranging between 0.4x10(4) and 2.2x10(4) erg cm(-3) over a 10 degrees C temperature range below the smectic-A-smectic-C(*)(A) phase-transition temperature. The results are in good agreement with estimates for U based upon the threshold field for the onset of solitary waves, and provide strong support in the low-field regime for the single Fourier component model proposed by Li et al. [Phys. Rev. B 52, R13 075 (1995)].
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