Induction of new ferrielectric smectic phases in the electric field

Abstract

ABSTRACTA theoretical approach for the description of intermediate phase sequences (observed in the temperature range between Sm-C* and Sm-CA*) in the presence of electric field is derived. The induction of long-periodicity ferrielectric smectic phases by the electric field is discussed. In particular, we acknowledge the induction of the 12-layer and 15-layer periodicity subphases, whose structure coincides with the ones observed by resonant x-ray scattering in [A. Iida, I. Nishiyama, and Y. Takanishi, Phys. Rev. E 89, 032503 (2014)].