Electric-field–temperature phase diagram of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal

摘要

We present a precise electric-field–temperature phase diagram of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal with ashort pitch Sm-Cα* phase. This was obtained by using a photoelastic modulator. A unique field-induced phasewas found inside the Sm-Cα* phase, which displayed low birefringence. Two tricritical points related to thephase were also observed. In addition, numerical calculations were made based on the discrete phenomenologicalmodel. The numerical results reproduced the experimental ones and it was clarified that the phase hasa three-layer structure without spatial modulation.