Critical behavior of nonlinear permittivity in the smectic-A phase of chiral liquid crystals.
We study the nonlinear permittivity of chiral liquid crystals in the smectic-A (Sm-A) phase near the ferroelectric smectic-C* (Sm-C*) phase and the smectic-C(*)(alpha) (Sm-C(*)(alpha)) phase theoretically and experimentally. The third-order nonlinear permittivity epsilon(3) shows the critical behavior with the exponent of four near the Sm-C* phase and its sign depends on the order of the phase transition. In the case of the Sm-A-Sm-C(*)(alpha) phase transition, the sign inversion of epsilon(3), presumably due to the large fluctuation of order parameter, is observed near the transition temperature.
Kimura
Y
Y
Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
Isono
H
H
Hayakawa
R
R