Abstract
The switching behavior of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) is studied both experimentally and theoretically. Experimentally the electro-optic response of multiwavelength-thick FLC cells revealed transient peak and dip characteristics. This behavior could not be explained at all according to the standard picture of a switchable birefringent plate, nor according to transient light scattering associated with ferroelectric domain reversal. Solutions of a numerical model of the FLC electric and elastic torques, which results in the sine-Gordon equation, showed the propagation of kink-antikink pair solitons. The nonuniform director structures corresponding to these solitons are sufficient to explain the experimental behavior of the transient electro-optic response with the wavelength, the field, and the polarizer-cell-analyzer orientation. The electro-optic response is found to be highly sensitive to the fixed boundary dipole orientations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 820-831 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Applied Physics |
| Volume | 76 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 15 Jul 1994 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Electro-optics
- Ferroelectric materials
- Sine-Gordon equation
- Numerical methods
- Light scattering
- Liquid crystals
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy