Sponsor
Financial support from the Petroleum Research Fund (PRF)
Published In
Physical Review Letters
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-30-1994
Subjects
Ferroelectric crystals, Liquid crystals -- Electric properties, Crystal optics
Abstract
We report a smectic-A–smectic-C–smectic-C* (ACC*) multicritical point in mixtures of chiral DOBAMBC [p-(n-decyloxybenzylidene)-p-amino-(2-methyl-butyl)] cinnamate and achiral 10O.8 (4-decyloxybenzylidene-4-octylaniline). Studies of the phase diagram, tilt angle (θ), polarization (P), and helix pitch (p) indicate an ACC* Lifshitz point that can be described in terms of the extended Landau theory. Specifically, the T*AC and the maximum polarization (Pm) exhibit quadratic composition dependence while the helical pitch length (p=2π/q) varies linearly. Both q and Pm vanish discontinuously at the C-C* phase boundary revealing its first order nature, consistent with a possible Lifshitz point.
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevLett.72.3558
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/11936
Citation Details
Rananavare, Shankar B.; Pisipati, V. G. K. M.; and Wong, E. W., "Smectic-A —Smectic-C* —Smectic-C Multicritical Point in Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals" (1994). Chemistry Faculty Publications and Presentations. 78.
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/11936
Description
This is the publisher's final PDF. Article appears in Physical Review Letters (http://journals.aps.org/prl/) and is copyrighted by APS Journals (http://publish.aps.org/)
*At the time of publication Shankar B. Rananavare was affiliated with the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology.