Electric-field-induced chirality flipping in smectic liquid crystals: the role of anisotropic viscosity.
We demonstrate the homogeneous and permanent reversal of the chirality of a condensed phase by an applied electric field. Tilted chiral smectic layers exhibit a coupled polarization density and molecular orientation fields which reorient about the layer normal as couple of fixed handedness in response to small applied electric fields. Experiments on some bent-core smectics show that above a threshold field the induced rotation can occur instead about the molecular long axis and that, as a result, the handedness of the phase can be flipped. The effect is quantitatively described by a nonequilibrium dissipative model of chiral smectic dynamics with anisotropic rotational viscosities.
Nakata
M
M
Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Shao
R-F
RF
Maclennan
J E
JE
Weissflog
W
W
Clark
N A
NA