Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Frustration between syn- and anticlinicity in mixtures of chiral and non-chiral tilted smectic-C-type liquid crystals
J P F Lagerwall1, G Heppke, F Giesselmann
1Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 55, D-70569, Stuttgart, Germany. jan.lagerwall@ipc.uni-stuttgart.de
Abstract:
We study the effects of mixing ferroelectric and antiferroelectric liquid-crystal compounds (FLCs and AFLCs) when the former are strictly synclinic and the latter strictly anticlinic, i.e. one mixture component exhibits only SmC* and the other only SmC(a)* as tilted phase. Three different paths between syn- and anticlinicity were detected: transition directly between SmC* and SmC(a)*, transition via the SmC(beta)* and SmC(gamma)* subphases, or by "escaping" the clinicity frustration by reducing the tilt to zero, i.e. the SmA* phase is extended downwards in temperature, separating SmC* from SmC(a)* in the phase diagram. The most common path is the one via the subphases, demonstrating that these phases appear as a result of frustration between syn- and anticlinic and, consequently, between syn- and antipolar order. For assessing the role of chirality, we also replaced the FLC with non-chiral synclinics. With one of the AFLCs, the route via supbhases was detected even in this case, suggesting that chirality--although necessary--does not have quite the importance that has previously been attributed to the appearance of the subphases. The path chosen in the mixture study seemed to be determined mainly by the synclinic component, the subphase induction occurring only when the SmA*-SmC* transition was second order.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Racemic Mixtures and the Resolution of Enantiomers
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds
Prochirality

