Third-order nonlinear electro-optic measurements in the smectic-Cγ* phase

ABSTRACT

The chiral smectic subphase with three-layer structure, ${\text{Sm}C}_{\gamma }^{*}$, is now of great interest from the point of view of device technologies such as multistate or symmetric switching. We report that the unique nonlinear electro-optic response can serve as precise mark of the phase transition into three-layer structure. The problem is illustrated with the first and third harmonic electro-optic spectra. Furthermore, the characteristic response of the helical liquid crystal phases correlated with particular collective modes using the Debye-type relaxation method for the well-known prototype liquid crystal material (MHPOBC) are presented.

KEYWORDS:

• Chiral liquid crystal subphases
• nonlinear electro-optical spectra
• third harmonic
• MHPOBC
• ${\text{Sm}C}_{\gamma }^{*}$ phase

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Prof. W. Kuczyński for his kind support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.