Short Pitch Smectic Structures in Electric Field

ABSTRACT

When an external electric field is applied to short pitch polar smectics, their helical structures distort and unwind. The final transition to completely unwound structure can be continuous or discontinuous. Within the discrete phenomenological model the nature of the transition depends on the existence of the next-nearest neighboring layers interactions. If they are present, the transition is discontinuous. We try to elucidate this phenomenon.

Keywords:

• antiferroelectric liquid crystals
• discrete model
• electric field