Abstract
Materials consisting of asymmetric banana-shaped molecules may form a smectic CG phase having C1 symmetry. We have studied textural transformations in a smectic phase of an asymmetric chlorine-substituted banana-shaped material under electric and mechanical fields. We observed two novel features that have not been observed so far on corresponding materials with symmetric banana-shaped molecules. These observations, however, could be explained by the same arguments as were used for the symmetric molecules. Although our studies do not exclude the possibility that the material has C1 symmetry, we suggest that the chlorine molecules are positioned arbitrarily and the bulk has C2 symmetry.