Structure and elastic properties of smectic liquid crystalline elastomer films

Mechanical measurements, x-ray investigations, and optical microscopy are employed to characterize the interplay of chemical composition, network topology, and elastic response of smectic liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) in various mesophases. Macroscopically ordered elastomer films of submicrometer thicknesses were prepared by cross linking freely suspended smectic polymer films. The cross-linked material preserves the mesomorphism and phase transitions of the precursor polymer. The elastic response of the smectic LCE is entropic, and the corresponding elastic moduli are of the order of MPa. In the tilted ferroelectric smectic-C* phase, the network structure plays an important role. Due to the coupling of elastic network deformations to the orientation of the mesogenic groups in interlayer cross-linked materials (mesogenic cross-linker units), the stress-strain characteristics is found to differ qualitatively from that in the other phases.