Chevron layer structures in surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) cells filled with a material which exhibits the chiral nematic to smectic C*phase transition

Abstract

Abstract Single component liquid crystals which exhibit the chiral nematic (N*) to smectic C* (SC*) phase transition exhibit a large director tilt with respect to the local layer normal (typically 30 degrees or greater) in the SC* phase which appears immediately upon cooling through the N* - SC* transition. In the SSFLC geometry and in the presence of an applied AC field these materials have been observed to align with their molecular long axes oriented along the buffing direction (for a buffed polymer alignment treatment) and with two domains of the smectic layers symmetrically disposed at a large angle (approximately the director tilt angle) with respect to the buffing direction[1]. Furthermore, the layer domains are selectable with the application of a DC field applied normal to the bounding plates. We demonstrate, for the large tilt mixture SCE-10, that the layer domains in all cases adopt the chevron local layer structure[2] immediately upon cooling through the transition. With decreasing temperature...