The Smectic A and the Smectic C Phase: A Coherent Molecular Picture

Abstract

A molecular field theory of the smectic A and smectic C phase is presented which is based on an interaction derived in terms of the molecular polarizability, its anisotropy and the components of the static molecular quadrupole tensor. It is shown that this attractive interaction strongly depends on the anisotropy of the excluded molecular volume. The results obtained explain the stability of the A phase, the appearance of the tilt in the C phase and the A-C phase transition, without resource to adjustable parameters which indeed have no molecular significance.

Keywords:

• liquid crystal
• phase transition
• molecular theory
• mean field approximation
• smectic A phase
• smectic C phase