Degeneracy lifting due to thermal fluctuations around the frustration point between anticlinic antiferroelectric SmCA*and synclinic ferroelectric SmC*

Abstract

In the binary mixture phase diagram of MC881 and MC452, the borderline between anticlinic antiferroelectric SmC(A)(*) and synclinic ferroelectric SmC(*) becomes apparently parallel to the temperature ordinate axis at the critical concentration r(c). The free energy difference between SmC(A)(*) and SmC^{*} is extremely small in a wide temperature range near r(c). In such circumstances, by observing Bragg reflection spectra due to the director helical structure and electric-field-induced birefringence, we have observed the continuous change from SmC(A)(*) to SmC(*) for r</~r(c) and the gradual growth of the full-pitch band over 5 °C or more in the apparent SmC(*) temperature region for r>/~r(c). These intriguing phenomena have been explained, successfully at least in the high-temperature region, by a thermal equilibrium between the synclinic and anticlinic orderings and the resulting Boltzmann distribution for the ratio between them; the thermal equilibrium is considered to be attained in a nonuniform defect-assisted way through solitary waves moving around dynamically. We have also discussed qualitatively an important role played by the effective long-range interlayer interactions in the low-temperature region.