Effect of cell surfaces on the stability of chiral smectic- C phases

Abstract

The effect of surfaces on the stability of smectic-C* (SmC*) variant phases is investigated. The results obtained using dielectric spectroscopy by varying the cell thickness show that the temperature ranges of SmC_alpha^*, SmC_A^*(1/2), and SmC_A^*(1/3) phases decrease with decreasing cell thickness, and the SmC_A^*(1/3) phase is more stable than the SmC_A^*(1/2) phase. The relative stability of any phase is found to be due to its large polar anchoring strength and low free energy compared to other phases in a cell. Experimental results are found to agree with the theory.