A Molecular Theory of SmC_A Liquid Crystals

摘要

In this work, we shall focus our interest on the phase sequence between SmC_A and SmA from a molecular theoretical point of view based on a mean-field framework. In the present study, we shall take account of the previously ignored quadrupolar interactions to support phase biaxiality. Therefore both dipolar and quadrupolar interactions between molecules will be taken into account in this work in order to explain the possible phase sequences. The theoretical framework will be given in section II generalising the previous approaches. Then some phase sequences will be presented to explore the crucial roles of the dipolar and the quadrupolar interactions in section III. Finally the concluding remarks will be addressed in section IV.