Continuum theory of tilted chiral smectic phases

Abstract

We demonstrate that the sequence of distorted commensurate phases observed in tilted chiral smectics is explained by the gain in electrostatic energy due to the lock-in of the unit cell to a number of layers which is the integer closest to the ratio pitch over thickness of the subjacent Sm-C${}_{\alpha }^{\ast }$ phase. We also explain the sign change of the helicity in the middle of the sequence by a balance between two twist sources one intrinsic and another due to the distortion of the Sm-C${}_{\alpha }^{\ast }$.

References in corpus (2)

• Effect of optical purity on phase sequence in antiferroelectric liquid crystals
• Extension of the Hamaneh - Taylor model using the macroscopic polarization for the description of chiral smectic liquid crystals