This book studies the electroclinic effect and
layer rotations in the chiral smectic C (SmC )
phase. Although a lot of work has been done on the
general behavior of layer rotation, the mechanism of
layer rotation of the smectic layer has not been
fully understood. Most of the previous work just
show the result of the rotation under specific
conditions. In this work, we propose a model for the
layer rotation of the SmC phase, which is able to
give answers to most of the basic questions about
the layer rotation. First, it is postulated that the
layer rotation is related to the electroclinic
effect. We investigate the electroclinic effect in
the SmC phase, for the first time as far as we
know, with three different experiments. We propose a
mechanism from a system energy point of view and
will explain with our modeling why only asymmetric
waveforms can rotate the layer of the SmC phase.
The basic idea is that an induced asymmetric
probability density of the director for each cycle
of an asymmetric electric waveform is the origin of
the layer rotation. We found that the expected
results from this modeling did not conflict with the
previous work.
layer rotations in the chiral smectic C (SmC )
phase. Although a lot of work has been done on the
general behavior of layer rotation, the mechanism of
layer rotation of the smectic layer has not been
fully understood. Most of the previous work just
show the result of the rotation under specific
conditions. In this work, we propose a model for the
layer rotation of the SmC phase, which is able to
give answers to most of the basic questions about
the layer rotation. First, it is postulated that the
layer rotation is related to the electroclinic
effect. We investigate the electroclinic effect in
the SmC phase, for the first time as far as we
know, with three different experiments. We propose a
mechanism from a system energy point of view and
will explain with our modeling why only asymmetric
waveforms can rotate the layer of the SmC phase.
The basic idea is that an induced asymmetric
probability density of the director for each cycle
of an asymmetric electric waveform is the origin of
the layer rotation. We found that the expected
results from this modeling did not conflict with the
previous work.