"Soliton switch" in chiral smectic liquid crystals

Abstract

Solitary waves are observed to mediate the transition between the two states with opposite polarization of chiral smectics. For samples thicker than the pitch, electric fields as high as ${10}^6$ V/cm do not completely unwind the helix of ferroelectric liquid crystals because the vanishing of domain walls in these layered phases, unlike in the cholesteric phase, requires the nucleation of an array of dislocations with a large Burger's vector. In addition, samples thinner than the pitch but still ≳ 10 μm are not bistable as we have experimentally verified.