Epitaxial growth alignment of ferroelectric smectic C phases on rubbed polymers

Abstract

Several of the polymers reported for surface alignment of ferroelectric smectic C phases in the literature are tested with a ferroelectric room temperature mixture. The results for this material and the reported findings in the literature are compared to the known crystal structure of the polymers. It is found that polymers with triclinic or monoclinic crystals give good alignment and bistability for the smectic C phase. Other crystal structures or non-crystalline polymers give a poorer performance. The mechanisms for creating a highly crystalline polymer surface are discussed, and the epitaxial growth of smectic phases on the crystalline surface is shown to be in accord with experiment.