A further experimental study of parallel surface-induced flexoelectric domains (PSIFED) (flexo-dielectric walls)

Abstract

Parallel surface-induced flexoelectric domains (flexo-dielectric walls) have been further studied using new tools—a shadowgraph technique and computer processing of the most important images. It was unambiguously proved that the domains are a manifestation of the quadrupolar flexoelectric effect arising in a non-homogeneous electric field created by injection or by double electric layers. In the latter case they began to form at a d.c. voltage of 0.3–0.5 V. Furthermore, they arose near the injecting electrode and interfered with rubbing-induced domains at the junctions of every two adjacent domains. Flexo-dielectric walls have been obtained for the first time in the liquid crystal p-n-butyl-p-methoxyazoxybenzene and new experimental facts have been discovered. A new model for their creation is proposed.