Abstract

We report the results of a systematic investigation of the process of smectic layer reorientation of a ferroelectric liquid crystal on the application of asymmetric electric fields. In contrast to previous reports, we observed a reversible smectic layer rotation in the plane of the substrate, limited by the amount of the director tilt angle, particularly also for asymmetric rectangular waveforms. We discuss the behaviour of a variation of external parameters, such as field asymmetry, electric field amplitude, frequency, cell gap and temperature in terms of the dominant influences of -liquid crystal substrate interactions, director switching including the electroclinic effect and electro-convective effects which provides a qualitative description of the smectic layer rotation.

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