title: Effect of an external electric field on the smectic-Ctilted* phases.
abstract: We are interested in the chiral tilted smectic subphases, smectic-C(tilted)(*), including commensurate structures as well as the incommensurate smectic-C(α)(*) one. The continuum theory defines two scalar order parameters I and J, which can be coupled with an external electric field through a linear term I × E and a dielectric term J × E(2). We have calculated the changes due to these terms in the phase diagrams in the (α,η) plane, where α comes from the spontaneous twist and η measures the strength of the biaxial order. The coupling with an external electric field induces the expansion of the areas with spontaneous polarization and the appearance of an electroazimuthal effect.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Molle et de la Modélisation Électromagnétique, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rjili
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Molle et de la Modélisation Électromagnétique, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gharbi
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Molle et de la Modélisation Électromagnétique, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, 2092 El Manar Tunis, Tunisia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Othman
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recherches Paul Pascal, Université Bordeaux 1, 115, Avenue Albert-Schweitzer, 33600 Pessac, France†
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Marcerou