Thickness and temperature dependences of dielectric property and electro-optic effect in ferroelectric liquid crystal

Abstract

The temperature T _m at which the maximum dielectric constant εE _m is observed, decreases with decreasing cell thickness. However, in the cell thinner than 10 μm, T _m again increases to higher temperatures and E _m decreases remarkably. These behaviors can be explained in terms of free energy theory by taking effects of the thickness on the relaxation time into consideration for thicker cells and by taking the hindrance of the molecular motion due to the wall effect into consideration for thinner cells.

Characteristics of electro-optic effects of ferroelectric liquid crystals are discussed as a function of the cell thickness and in comparison with the thickness dependence of dielectric properties.