A molecular theoretical derivation of the Landau free energy of chiral smectic C liquid crystals

Abstract

A molecular theoretical derivation of the Landau free energy of chiral smectic C liquid crystals is presented on the basis of a molecular theoretical approach. The excess free energy concerned with the ferroelectric helicoidal structure is derived within a mean field approximation. Several material constants such as the Curie temperature, the elastic constant, the helical pitch, the piezo- and flexoelectric constants and the dielectric susceptibility are expressed in terms of some effective intermolecular interaction parameters between molecules. A molecular theoretical consideration of the chiral smectic C-smectic A transitions is given in comparison with a few previous works. By comparing with some available experimental data for DOBAMBC, effective interaction parameters are numerically estimated.