A general method for aligning bent-core smectic liquid crystal materials is described. Alternating electric fields between interdigitated electrodes patterned on one cell surface create torques on the liquid crystal that result in uniform "bookshelf" orientation of the smectic layers. The aligned cell can then be driven in the conventional way by applying an electric field between all of the stripe electrodes connected together and a monolithic electrode on the other cell surface. Fast, analog, optical phase-only modulation is demonstrated in a device containing a polar, bent-core SmAP F material aligned using this technique. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
The cover picture shows characteristics of a new ‘de Vries’‐type ferroelectric liquid crystal in which the ferroelectric transition is an order–disorder transition where the directions of molecular tilt inside a smectic layer order into a certain direction. Since the rod‐like molecules (drawn as cylinders) are tilted in the paraelectric SmA* (with random tilt directions) as well as in the ferroelectric SmC* phase, the ferroelectric transition is connected with a rather weak contraction of the smectic layer thickness (even though the optical tilt θ reaches values of about 25°). On page 890, F. Giesselmann et al. show that this new ferroelectric material exhibits a remarkably weak temperature dependence of its giant electroclinic effect (the coupling between tilt and elelctric field) in the SmA* phase. The origin of this striking electroclinic effect is the co‐occurrence of a ‘de Vries’‐type ordering with a weak first‐order tilting transition.magnified image
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