Related papers: The Biaxial Smectic-A* Phase -- A New Phase, Alrea…
Using a generalized Landau theory involving orientational, layering, tilt, and biaxial order parameters we analyze the smectic-A* and smectic-C* (Sm-A* -- Sm-C*) transition, showing that a combination of small orientational order and large…
There is a large variety of bi-layered structures with smectic A type ordering. Results of this paper contribute to a theory of bi-layered phases. The difference between the \( SmC^{*}_{A} \) and \( SmC_{\alpha}^{*} \) phases is described…
Phenomenological model of chiral polar smectics is introduced with interactions up to the fourth neighboring layers. The minimization of the free energy gives three stable structures: the ferroelectric Sm C$^*$ phase, the antiferroelectric…
We study the smectic $A$-$C$ phase transition in biaxial disordered environments, e.g. fully anisotropic aerogel. We find that both the $A$ and $C$ phases belong to the universality class of the "XY Bragg glass", and therefore have…
Under an electric field, chiral smectic liquid crystals transit usually to the unwound SmC* phase where the helical structure is completely unrolled. Sometimes the sample transits initially towards an intermediate polar state before the…
We report the smectic $A_F$, a new liquid crystal phase of the ferroelectric nematic realm. The smectic $A_F$ is a phase of small polar, rod-shaped molecules which form two-dimensional fluid layers spaced by approximately the mean molecular…
The ferroelectric (Sm C$^*$) -- antiferroelectric (Sm C$^*_A$) -- reentrant ferroelectric (re Sm C$^*$) phase temperature sequence was observed for system with competing synclinic - anticlinic interactions. The basic properties of this…
The liquid crystalline compound, forming the glass of the smectic C$_A$* phase, is investigated by the X-ray diffraction in the 18-298 K range. The characteristic distances within the smectic C$_A$* phase are determined. The electron…
We present a theory of the elasticity and fluctuations of the Smectic A and C phases in uniaxial, anisotropic disordered environments, e.g., stretched aerogel. We find that, bizarrely, the low-temperature, lower-symmetry Smectic $C$ phase…
We explain theoretically peculiarities of the smectic A -- hexatic B equilibrium phase coexistence in a finite temperature range recently observed experimentally in free standing smectic films [I.A.Zaluzhnyy et al., Physical Review E,…
We show that a generalized Landau theory for the smectic A and C phases exhibits a biaxiality induced AC tricritical point. Proximity to this tricritical point depends on the degree of orientational order in the system; for sufficiently…
Following the groundbreaking discovery of the ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal phase (NF), a series of closely-related new polar phases have also been found. An especially interesting one is the ferroelectric smectic A phase (SmAF) with…
We have structurally characterized the liquid crystal phase that appears as an intermediate state when a dielectric nematic, having polar disorder of its molecular dipoles, transitions to the almost perfectly polar-ordered ferroelectric…
We propose a Landau-de Gennes phenomenological model to describe the pressure induced smectic A-nematic phase transition. The pressure induced smectic A phase transitions are discussed for varying coupling between orientational and…
We demonstrate that the sequence of distorted commensurate phases observed in tilted chiral smectics is explained by the gain in electrostatic energy due to the lock-in of the unit cell to a number of layers which is the integer closest to…
Recent experiments probing a new ferroelectric liquid crystal (CLF08) confined in cells with planar alignment have shown dielectric and optic anomalies suggesting the onset of ferrielectric ordering within the surface lattice of…
A series of asymmetric dimers with an odd number of atoms in the spacer were found to form different types of twisted structures despite being achiral. The formation of a variety of helical structures is accompanied by a gradual freezing of…
We study the smectic AC transition in anisotropic and uniaxial disordered environments, e.g., aerogel with an external field. We find very strange behavior of translational correlations: the low-temperature, lower-symmetry Smectic C phase…
The smectic C (smC) phase represents a unique class of liquid crystal phases characterised by the layered arrangement of molecules with tilted orientations with respect to layer normals. Building upon the real-valued tensorial smectic A…
Smectic-C elastomers can be prepared by crosslinking, e.g., liquid crystal polymers, in the smectic-A phase followed by a cooling through the smectic-A to smectic-C phase transition. This transition from $D_{\infty h}$ to $C_{2h}$ symmetry…