Effect of optical purity on phase sequence in antiferroelectric liquid crystals

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how optical purity influences phase sequences in antiferroelectric liquid crystals, highlighting the roles of piezoelectric, flexoelectric, and quadrupolar couplings in phase stability and transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a discrete phenomenological model to explain the sensitivity of phase sequences to optical purity and the conditions for various phase transitions in AFLCs.

Findings

High optical purity reduces the number of stable phases.

Flexoelectric coupling is significant in materials with multiple phases.

Strong quadrupolar coupling is necessary for certain phase sequences.

Abstract

We use the discrete phenomenological model to study theoretically the phase diagrams in antiferroelectric liquid crystals (AFLCs) as a function of optical purity and temperature. Recent experiments have shown that in some systems the number of phases is reduced if the optical purity is extremely high. In some materials the SmC$_{A}^{\star}$ phase is the only stable tilted smectic phase in the pure sample. In the scope of the presented model this high sensitivity of the phase sequence in the AFLCs to optical purity is attributed to the piezoelectric coupling which is reduced if optical purity is reduced. We limit our study to three topologically equal phases - SmC$^{*}$, SmC$_{\alpha}^{*}$ and SmC$_{A}^{*}$ and show that the reduction of optical purity forces the system from the antiferroelectric to the ferroelectric phase with a possible SmC$_{\alpha}^{\star}$ between them. The effect of the flexoelectric and quadrupolar coupling is considered as well. If the phase diagram includes only two phases, SmC$^{\star}$ and SmC$%_{A}^{\star}$, the flexoelectric coupling is very small. The materials which exhibit the SmC$_{\alpha}^{\star}$ in a certain range of optical purity and temperature, can be expected to have a significant flexoelectric coupling that is comparable with the piezoelectric coupling. And finally, when temperature is lowered the phase sequence SmA $\to $ SmC$%_{\alpha}^{\star}$ $\to $ SmC$^{\star}$ $\to $ SmC$%_{A}^{\star}$ is possible only in materials in which quadrupolar coupling is very strong.