Dependence of the Tilt Angle on External Forces for Smectic-C And Chiral Smectic-C Liquid Crystals—Measurement of the Heat Capacity of DOBAMBC

Abstract

A measurement of the specific heat of DOBAMBC is presented, and it is shown that a Landau expansion of the free-energy density with a sixth-order term is adequate to describe the measurement. The coefficients in the Landau expansion are estimated from this measurement.

The dependence of the tilt angle on applied electric and magnetic fields is discussed for both smectic-C and chiral (ferroelectric) smectic-C liquid crystals. Numerical estimates of the Landau coefficients are used to show that the effect of external forces on the tilt angle is negligible except when being less than approximately 0.2 K from the transition to the smectic-A phase. The effect on the smectic-C-smectic-A phase-transition temperature is also discussed.

Boundary effects can also affect the tilt angle, and an expression for the penetration depth of a boundary-induced disturbance is calculated. For thin, planar samples, a coupling between the two boundaries can induce a transition to the smectic-A phase. It is demonstrated that this transition is analogous to the ordinary Freederickz transition in nematic liquid crystals.