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Unraveling the Mystery of “Thresholdless Antiferroelectricity”: High Contrast Analog Electro‐Optics in Chiral Smectic Liquid Crystals
Author(s) -
Rudquist P.,
Shao R. F.,
Coleman D.,
Bardon S.,
Link D. R.,
Bellini T.,
Maclennan J. E.,
Chen X. H.,
Walba D. M.,
Lagerwall J. P. F.,
Buivydas M.,
Gouda F.,
Lagerwall S. T.,
Clark N. A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
sid symposium digest of technical papers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2168-0159
pISSN - 0097-966X
DOI - 10.1889/1.1834044
Subject(s) - liquid crystal , antiferroelectricity , materials science , optics , polarization (electrochemistry) , extinction ratio , twist , contrast ratio , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , ferroelectricity , physics , chemistry , wavelength , geometry , mathematics , dielectric
A liquid crystal mixture reported to exhibit “thresholdless antiferroelectricity” has been studied in experiments employing freely suspended liquid crystal films, bookshelf cell electro‐optics, total internal reflection from bookshelf cell solid‐liquid crystal interfaces, and computer simulation. The results show that the so‐called “V‐shaped” analog electro‐optic response is due to the field‐induced switching of a twisted smectic C* structure, stabilized by strong polar surface interactions and having the twist confined to thin surface regions by polarization space charge effects. This leaves the bulk of the cell uniform, which gives good extinction at zero field.