Abstract
The significance of Gray’s cyanobiphenyls in the discovery of the partially bilayer smectic A phase (SmAd) and in the formulation of mixtures exhibiting the blue phase is described. The properties of the SmAd phase and its relationships to molecular structures are reviewed. Induced phenomena such as the transformation of nematics into smectics, SmAd or SmA1, as well as the opposite transformation of smectics into nematics are described and discussed.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Prof. P.K. Mandal, Prof. S. Urban and Prof. W. Piecek for carefully and critically reading the manuscript and providing useful remarks to arrive at its final form.