Electrooptic investigations of enantiomeric mixtures of the antiferroelectric liquid crystal TFMHPOBC

Abstract

Measurements are reported for the polarization in the ordered phase, and for the tilt susceptibility in the 'disordered' smectic A phase, of mixtures of left- and right-handed enantiomers of TFMHPOBC. The tilt susceptibility was found to exhibit a critical exponent gamma 1.20 0.05, and both its magnitude and the polarization were found to be nonmonotonic in enantiomeric excess X of S-TFMHPOBC. Their ratio, however, was found to be approximately constant with X. Several possible explanations are examined.