Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.351, 259-267, 2000
Resonance mode and pretransitional fluctuations near the SmA-SmC* phase transition
A low-frequency (0.1 - 100 kHz) resonance mode interpreted as a texture one has been investigated on ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC). Compounds and mixtures showing different types of the phase transition into the SmC* phase (I - SmC*, N* -SmC*, SmA - SmC*) have been examined in order to find the resonance properties in the ferroelectric phase. It has been shown that the origin of the resonance response (resonance mode) is caused by strong pretransitional order parameter fluctuations in both SmA and SmC* phases near the second order SmA - SmC* phase transition. The principal factor causing the resonance made origination is the presence of an external mechanical field in the well aligned uniform bookshelf FLC texture. An interaction between the texture resonance mode and bending modes of glass cell plates and the synchronization effect have been investigated.
Keywords:ferroelectric liquid crystals;low-frequency resonance mode;bookshelf texture;mechanical stress;synchronization effect