“…3,4 Meanwhile, the V-shaped switching cell in which the helix is suppressed, has an average optical axis parallel to the smectic layer normal l for an applied voltage of Vϭ0. This has been confirmed by good extinction under crossed polarizers when one of them is along l. 3,5,6 Recently, Clark et al suggested the electrostatic model to explain the stabilization of molecules like this. 7 According to their model, polarization charge self-interaction becomes important with material having sufficiently large spontaneous polarization P. This makes P in the bulk align uniformly parallel to the aligning surface ( ϭ /2) through P on both surfaces heads for the surface normal ͑ ϭ0 and ͒.…”