Abstract
The dynamic changes in the molecular alignment of ferroelectric liquid crystal under an applied electric field are studied by observation of conoscopic figures with a temporal resolution of 0.1 ms. Comparison of the observed conoscopic figures with simulations indicate that deformation of the helical structures in the ferroelectric smectic C* phase initiates from the center of the liquid crystal cell within 0.1 ms under an electric field, propagating outward to the cell edges over a period of a few milliseconds. The fastest moving velocity (Δ φ/Δ t) is found to occur at molecular layers with azimuthal angles of π /2 and 3π /2 rad.