First-order and continuous Fréedericksz transitions in cholesteric liquid crystals.

Field-induced phase transitions in antiferroelectric liquid crystals.

A theoretical study is made of the process by which an antiferroelectric smectic liquid crystal undergoes a field-induced transition to ferroelectric alignment. We find that for cells of moderate thickness the initial departure from antiferroelectric alignment occurs as a continuous Fréedericksz transition. The following transition from partial alignment to complete ferroelectric ordering may o...

Cholesteric to cholesteric phase transitions in liquid crystals

Phase Behaviour of Colloidal Systems

torting the helical structure of the phase) and the nematic phase develops when the equilibrium pitch of the cholesteric phase becomes larger than the sample thick­ ness. This transition is first order and can easily be observed when approaching a smectic phase, because the cholesteric pitch diverges at this transition. In this way, it is possible to observe the growth of the cholesteric phase ...

Effect of Surface Alignment Layers on the Configurational Transitions in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

To understand the mechanism behind the pitch change during the transient planar to the planar state transition of a cholesteric liquid crystal ͑while it is relaxing from the homeotropic state to the planar state͒, we studied a more controlled situation of pitch change in a thermochromic liquid crystal. We studied the pitch change in the liquid crystal, as a function of temperature, under various ...

Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Flakes—a New Form

LLE Review, Volume 74 139 The last 20 years have seen a growth of mixed-media systems in which cholesteric liquid crystals (CLC’s) are one component. These include polymer-dispersed CLC’s1 in which the CLC’s are confined to microdroplets within a continuous isotropic polymer and CLC’s in gels2 in which there is a small amount of polymer to stabilize the CLC structure. In either case, the contin...