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Study of the SmC alpha(*) phase in the Tokyo mixture by conoscopy using tilted cell

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
  • Jangkun Song
  • A. D. L. Chandani
  • O. E. Panarina
  • Atsuo Fukuda
  • Jagdish K. Vij
  • V. Goertz
  • J. W. Goodby
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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2006
<mark>Journal</mark>Ferroelectrics
Issue number1
Volume344
Number of pages7
Pages (from-to)285-291
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English
Event10th Conference on Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals - Stare Jablonski, Poland
Duration: 12/09/200517/09/2005

Conference

Conference10th Conference on Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals
Country/TerritoryPoland
CityStare Jablonski
Period12/09/0517/09/05

Abstract

We observed the existence of the SmC*(alpha) phase in the so-called Tokyo mixture, which has been used for studying V-shape switching by a number of research groups. Conoscopic observations, birefringence measurements using a set-up that employs a photo elastic modulator (PEM) and dielectric measurement were used for studying the behavior of the SmC*(alpha) phase. In particular, a conoscopic method using tilted cells was used to observe the conoscopy of the large tilt angle phase. We found that the tilted conoscopic method is very useful for analyzing large tilt smectic phases. The SmC alpha* phase was observed in a narrow temperature range from 63.0 degrees C to 63.4 degrees C. This is the first report of an observation of this phase in the Tokyo Mixture. It showed uniaxiality at low voltage but changed to biaxiality parallel to the electric field at high voltage in the conoscopic experiment. The absolute value of the biaxiality was quite high, up to 0.003, which means that the unwinding process of SmC*(alpha) is different from that of SmC*. This high parallel biaxiality implies the emergence of ferri-like structure, that is, co-existence of synclinic order and anticlinic order, during the field induced unwinding process.