Optical studies on two tilted smectic phases of meta-substituted three-ring liquid crystal compounds

Null transmission ellipsometry and depolarized reflected light microscopy have been performed on freestanding films of two achiral meta-substituted three-ring compounds. These compounds exhibit two different tilted smectic phases, SmC₁ and SmC₂. Our studies confirmed previous results obtained from another achiral meta-substituted three-ring compound that the SmC₁ and SmC₂ phases are SmC and SmC_A, respectively.