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abstract
Bent-core liquid crystal was studied by polarizing microscopy, and electro-optical measurements. This compound forms a sequence of smectic liquid crystalline phases (SmA, SmCSPR, SmCSPF) with growing tilt, polar coherence length and increasing layer coupling on decreasing temperature. The paper is focused on the first observation of a helix in achiral SmCSPF phase. The helix is parallel to the layer normal and the pitch is much shorter than the optical wavelength. This new phase shows fast (∼30 μs) grey-scale switching due to the deformation of the helix, providing potential use in devices with fast linear and thresholdless electro-optical response.
Funding
Our work was partly supported by 13/US/I2866 from the Science Foundation of Ireland as part of the US–Ireland Research and Development Partnership program jointly administered with the United States National Science Foundation under grant number NSF-DMR-1410649