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Effect of an electric field on the structural and optical properties of fluorinated freely suspended smectic films

  • Liquid Crystals
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Abstract

Within the framework of the generalized mean-field model that takes into account the anisotropic interactions between the nearest neighbors of molecules forming freely suspended smectic films (FSSFs) and the stabilizing effects of the smectic-A (SmA)–air interface, a numerical study was performed of the structural, thermodynamic, and optical properties of these systems in the process of their layer-by-layer thinning. The results of calculating the disjoining pressure P, the average thickness of the smectic layers L, and the reflectivity index R of a FSSF formed by 5-n-alkyl-2-(4-n-(perfluoroalkyl-methylene oxide)-pentyl) (H10F5MOPP) molecules showed that these values undergo precipitous changes in the process of layer-bylayer thinning of the film. Calculations of R(T) as a function of temperature T exceeding the phase transition temperature of SmA into an isotropic state in the bulk of the liquid crystal material are in good agreement with the experimentally obtained data for the reflectivity of the FSSF formed by H10F5MOPP molecules.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute оf Molecular Physics, Polish Аcаdеmу оf Sciences, Poznań, 60-179, Poland

    I. Śliwa

  2. Institute of Problems of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 199178, Russia

    A. V. Zakharov

Authors
  1. I. Śliwa
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  2. A. V. Zakharov
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Correspondence to A. V. Zakharov.

Additional information

Original Russian Text © I. Śliwa, A.V. Zakharov, 2017, published in Fizika Tverdogo Tela, 2017, Vol. 59, No. 12, pp. 2473–2482.

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Śliwa, I., Zakharov, A.V. Effect of an electric field on the structural and optical properties of fluorinated freely suspended smectic films. Phys. Solid State 59, 2502–2511 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063783417120290

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063783417120290

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