On the variation of pitch and polarisation-tilt coupling in chiral smectic C

Abstract

We have carried out a detailed study of the thermal variation of spontaneous polarisation Ps, tilt angle b.thetas and helical pitch p in the chiral smectic C phase of materials having varying degrees of Ps. The results, in particular the behavior of Ps/b.thetas and p, are compared with the predictions of the extended meanfield model. The influence of different types of Ps-b.thetas coupling terms is also discussed.