Solitary waves in ferroelectric liquid crystals.

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Since their discovery by Meyer et al. in 1975,1 ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) in the smectic C phase have been the focus of a considerable research effort. It is now well established thay any tilted smectic liquid crystalline phase composed of chiral molecules should possess a permanent electric polarization P which is oriented perpendicular to the molecular director n and parallel to the smectic layer plane (See Figure 5.1). The presence of permanent dipoles fundamentally alters the nature of the interactions between the molecules themselves and with any cell walls or applied electric fields. This is evidenced by the existence of a whole family of director orientational structures which result in the distinctive textures peculiar to ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs)2