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Electro-disclinic effect in tilted smectic phases of banana-shaped liquid crystal materials |
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| Authors: | A. Jákli G. G. Nair C. K. Lee L. C. Chien |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Chemistry , University of York , Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK am537@york.ac.uk;3. Department of Chemistry , University of York , Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK;4. Fujifilm, Hexagon House , Blackley, Manchester, M9 8ZS, UK;5. Work undertaken whilst at The Nottingham Trent University , Department of Chemistry , Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK |
| Abstract: | We give the first evidence that the director tilt angle can be reduced by electric fields in the tilted smectic phase of banana-shaped molecules. In these phases the value of polarization is determined by the molecular packing and no electro-clinic effect is expected. Our studies show that high electric fields eventually induce a meta-stable phase with zero director tilt. The tilted phase slowly recovers at low fields. We propose that the field-induced quenching of the layer fluctuations is responsible for the observed effects. |
| Keywords: | polymer‐dispersed liquid crystal electrically‐tuneable grating liquid crystal diffraction efficiency |