Electroconvection in smectic C liquid-crystal films visualized by optical anisotropy

Autor:	Horst Stegemeyer, Alice Becker, S. Ried, Ralf Stannarius
Rok vydání:	1997
Předmět:	Physics::Fluid Dynamics Condensed Matter::Soft Condensed Matter Convection Materials science Convective instability Condensed matter physics Liquid crystal Electric field General Physics and Astronomy Electrohydrodynamics Texture (crystalline) Instability Vortex
Zdroj:	Europhysics Letters (EPL). 39:257-262
ISSN:	1286-4854 0295-5075
DOI:	10.1209/epl/i1997-00344-9
Popis:	Electrohydrodynamic convection due to the Carr-Helfrich (CH) effect has been extensively investigated in nematics. It has been predicted also for freely suspended smectic C and C* films. On the other hand, in smectic A films another type of electroconvection (vortex flow) has been described (Morris S. W., De Bruyn J. R. and May A., Phys. Rev. Lett. 65 (1990) 2378) but is not sufficiently understood by theory so far. We report experiments on freestanding smectic C films in lateral AC electric fields. A convective instability bifurcating continuously from the homogeneous ground state is found. Evidently the mechanism of the instability is of a similar type as in SA. The director field in the convection vortices is directly visualized in the optical texture.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::bfcd4b28c2f7ac5d61d48c38090bc54e https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i1997-00344-9 Zobrazit plný text záznamu