Abstract
The chiral liquid crystalline (S)-4-(methylheptyloxycarbonyl) phenyl 4-(4′-octyloxyphenylcarbonyloxy) benzoate is distinguished by the exceptionally large temperature range of its phase. This allowed us to study in detail the director tilt angle and electric permittivity of
in comparison to the temperature T and the electric field strength E. We basically observed that the SmCα temperature range is reduced at increasing electric field strength and completely disappears beyond a certain critical field. Tilt angle measurements were supplemented by dielectric studies, which accurately indicated the field-dependent phase transition temperatures and led to the accurate phase diagram in the T, E-plane.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to present their gratitude to Professor Jerzy Małecki for fruitful discussions while preparing this paper and to Alexander Saipa for his helpful technical assistance. This work has been supported in 2007 by the funds for science as a research project, partly by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under contract D/03/44608.