Pyroelectric investigations of polarization and charge distributions in sandwich cells containing a ferroelectric liquid crystalline polymer

Abstract

With the laser intensity modulation method (LIMM), polarization and charge profiles in sandwich cells containing the ferroelectric liquid crystal side group polymer LCP1 have been investigated. In a sample with a thickness larger than the helical pitch, contributions to the polarization profile due to surface anchoring were found. Additional contributions inside the cell occurred. The validity of the results, concerning numerical deviations in the deconvolution process of the pyrospectra, has been tested by simulations. The influence of space charges for measurements with a static external electrical field is discussed, giving contributions to the profile in addition to those arising from polarization.