Experimental determination of Landau-expansion coefficients in ferroelectric liquid crystals

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A technique of measuring basic Landau-expansion coefficients in ferroelectric liquidcrystals is proposed. The method is based on combined measurements of the tilt angle andthe total polarization of ferroelectric liquid crystals at various temperatures and electric field strength in the vicinity of the ferroelectric S*C-paraelectricS*A transition. The chiral and non-chiral coefficients of the free energy expansion are obtained from these data by a numerical analysis based on the generalized Landau-model of ferroelectric liquid crystals. The method is applied to two commercial FLC mixtures and the results are reported.