The Dielectric Anomaly Near the Transition from the Smectic A* to Smectic C* Phase and Visco-Elastic Properties of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

A pyro-electric technique is developed which allows the measurement of the dielectric response near the A*-C* phase transition in ferroelectric liquid crystals. The temperature dependence of the elastic modulus K _θ(T) corresponding to the molecular tilt in smectic layers is calculated from the experimental data. Direct pyro-electric measurements of the relaxation time for the spontaneous polarization P _s and the data on K _θ(T) allow us to calculate the temperature behaviour of the twist-viscosity γ₁(T) for the smectic C* phase. The curves γ₁(T) are compared for the smectic C* and the nematic phase of the same compound and the dependence of the twist viscosity on the molecular tilt angle in the C* phase is investigated. The results of the dielectic measurements are discussed in terms of the mean-field approximation.