Dielectric and hydrodynamic instabilities in certain classes of discotic mesophases

Abstract

The aim of this letter is to give a short description of some electro‐optical effects which are observed in a D_F phase of disklike molecules. We point out the existence of dielectric and electrohydrodynamic instabilities. The last one is the experimental evidence of the interesting situation of an anisotropic liquid with ε_a≳0σ_a<0 in the homeotropic configuration. These electro‐optic effects can be useful in display applications of the discotic phases.