Bilayer-by-bilayer antiferroelectric ordering in freely suspended films of an achiral polymer-monomer liquid crystal mixture
Thin freely suspended films of a mixture of an achiral side-chain liquid crystal polymer and its monomer have been studied with depolarized reflected light microscopy. We observe that regions with an odd number of bilayers exhibit a net spontaneous polarization in the tilt plane of the molecules, while regions with an even number of bilayers have no net polarization. These odd-even effects are direct evidence that the tilted smectic bilayers are anticlinic at the polymer backbone and synclinic at bilayer interface and confirm that the phase is bilayer-by-bilayer antiferroelectric.
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DR
Condensed Matter Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Clark
NA
Ostrovskii
BI
Soto Bustamante EA