The relation among the tilt-angle, polarization and helical pitch in the chiral-smectic-C phase

Abstract

Three macroscopic physical quantities, i.e., the tilt-angle, polarization, and helical pitch, characterizing the chiral-smectic-C phase are related to one another through an equation. This equation can be derived readily from the given mean-field free energy. Here we argue and demonstrate that simultaneous measurements on those three physical quantities are important for us to make the proper choice of the free energy expansion terms which contain the wave vector associated with the helical pitch.