Scattering displays from 'banana-smectics'

Abstract

Smectic liquid crystals of bent-shape molecules (banana-smectics) opened a whole new field in liquid crystals research, pioneered by groups in Tokyo [1], Boulder [2], Berlin [3], Halle [4], Budapest [5] and several other places. [6] The first scattering-type displays of these materials were presented recently. [7] It was observed that ‘racemic’ state of single-tilted polar smectic phase is scattering in the antiferroelectric OFF state and is optically clear in the ferroelectric ON state induced by electric fields. The chiral structure works in opposite way, i.e. it is transparent at zero fields and is scattering in the field ON state. In some cases these two structures may be reversibly interchanged implying their use in devices that consume energy only during switching from one stable state to the other. This article is a summary of a cooperative work with Prof. L-C. Chien, Prof. G. Heppke, Dr D. Krüerke, Dr G. Nair, Dr H. Sawade and S. Rauch.