Smectic-C‘‘chevron,’’ a planar liquid-crystal defect: Implications for the surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid-crystal geometry

Abstract

The recent discovery of ‘‘chevron’’ structured smectic-C (SC) layers in surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid-crystal (SSFLC) cells [T. P. Rieker, N. A. Clark, G. S. Smith, D. S. Parmar, E. B. Sirota, and C. R. Safinya, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2568 (1987)] enables the understanding of many commonly observed features of SSFLC director and layer structure. We present the full three-dimensional layer structure of zigzag walls, the predominant SSFLC defect, which we find to mediate change in chevron direction. We show that stabilization of the director field in SC chevron cells occurs at the chevron interface, so that SC chevron cells behave as two nearly independent cells optically and electrically in series.