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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Theoretical analysis of continuous pitch evolution and reversed phase sequence in antiferroelectric liquid crystals
Katarina Susman1, Bostjan Zeks, Mojca Cepic
1Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Abstract:
Recent studies reported continuous shortening of the pitch from more than four layers to less than four layers in the helicoidally modulated tilted Sm C(alpha)* phase. In a different system, the reversed phase sequence was found: the ferroelectric tilted Sm C* phase appeared below the four-layer Sm CFI2* phase upon cooling. In this contribution we quantitatively explain the behavior within the discrete phenomenological model and we found that both behaviors are the consequence of the same reason: the quadrupolar interlayer interactions.
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