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Orientation of a chiral smectic C elastomer by mechanical fields
Author(s) -
Semmler Klaus,
Finkelmann Heino
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
polymers for advanced technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.61
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1581
pISSN - 1042-7147
DOI - 10.1002/pat.1994.220050405
Subject(s) - materials science , elastomer , liquid crystal , orientation (vector space) , phase (matter) , condensed matter physics , field (mathematics) , symmetry (geometry) , shear (geology) , layer (electronics) , composite material , geometry , physics , optoelectronics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics
It is well known that, with respect to the director, nematic elastomers can be macroscopically aligned by uniaxial mechanical fields. Extending this method to a chiral smectic C elastomer, depending on the experimental set‐up either smectic layer orientation or director orientation parallel to the stress axis occurs. In order to align the director and the smectic layers a biaxial mechanical field (e.g. shear field) consistent with the phase symmetry has to be used to achieve a macroscopically uniform orientation of the untwisted smectic C * structure.