Discovery of a Novel Ferrielectric subphase of Five-Laye Periodicity in Binary Mixtures of Chiral Smetic Reversed Phase Sequence
Date
2011
Authors
Chandani, A. D. L.
Fukuda, Atsuo
Kumar, S.
Jagdish, K. Vij
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Pearadeniya
Abstract
In a binary mixture system of ferroelectric and antiferroelectric liquid crystals whose major component shows an unusual reversed phase sequence of SmC∗A(1/2)−SmC∗, a new phase with ferrielectric order of five layers has been discovered by the electric field-induced birefringence (EFIB) measurements. The EFIB was measured using a photo-elastic modulator (PEM) set-up and by applying an in-plane electric field to a homeotropic aligned cell filled with the binary mixtures of compounds with ferroelectric and antiferroelectric compounds. The contours of constant birefringence in the electric field–temperature (E–T) phase diagrams clearly indicate a distinct region corresponding to a new phase bordering the four-layer SmC∗(1/2) on the low temperature side and SmC∗α on the high temperature side. This new phase is unambiguously assigned to SmC∗(3/5) whose structure has been calculated by Osipov and Gorkunov.
Description
Keywords
Antiferroelectrics , chiral smectics , ferrielectric phase of five layer periodicity , unusual reversed phase sequence , Chemistry
Citation
Liquid Crystals Vol. 38 no. 5 2011 pp. 663