Abstract
We study the nonlinear permittivity of chiral liquid crystals in the smectic-A (Sm-A) phase near the ferroelectric smectic-C* (Sm-C*) phase and the smectic-C(*)(alpha) (Sm-C(*)(alpha)) phase theoretically and experimentally. The third-order nonlinear permittivity epsilon(3) shows the critical behavior with the exponent of four near the Sm-C* phase and its sign depends on the order of the phase transition. In the case of the Sm-A-Sm-C(*)(alpha) phase transition, the sign inversion of epsilon(3), presumably due to the large fluctuation of order parameter, is observed near the transition temperature.
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