Dynamic Processes of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Molecules under an Applied Electric Field

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.

Keywords:

• Ferroelectric liquid crystal
• helical structure
• conoscopic figure
• dynamic orientation process