What the Theory Says about the Six Layer Periodic Structures in Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystals?

Abstract

We discuss the prerequisites for the formation of the structure with a period of six layers in antiferroelectric liquid crystals. We find that such a structure can appear in the region where the incommensurate helical pitch in the phase approaches six layers, if biquadratic coupling favoring uniplanar tilts in neighboring layers is already significant and if electrostatic dipolar interactions favor parallel ordering of dipoles in neighboring layers.

Keywords:

• Antiferroelectric liquid crystal
• lock-in
• multilayer structure

Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by grant P1–0055, financed by Ministry for high education, science and technology, Slovenia and the Science Fund grant (305/PFIZIK/613605), financed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia.