title: Ring-pattern dynamics in smectic-C* and smectic-C*A freely suspended liquid crystal films.
abstract: Ring patterns of concentric 2pi solitons in molecular orientation form in freely suspended chiral smectic-C films in response to an in-plane rotating electric field. We present measurements of the driven dynamics of ring formation under conditions of synchronous winding and of the zero-field relaxation of ring patterns, and propose a simple model which enables their quantitative description in low polarization DOBAMBC. In smectic-C*A TFMHPOBC we observe an odd-even layer number effect, with odd layer number films exhibiting order of magnitude slower relaxation rates than even layer films. We show that this rate difference is due to a much larger spontaneous polarization in odd layer number films.
authors.affiliation: Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Radzihovsky
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Natale
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Maclennan
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walsh
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Keast
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Neubert