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VOLUME 76 (2002) | ISSUE 8 | PAGE 579
Polar Smectic subphases: phase diagrams, structures and X-ray scattering
PACS: 61.30.Eb, 64.70.Md, 68.10.Cr
Abstract
We analyze a discrete phenomenological model accounting for phase transitions and structures of polar Smectic-C* liquid crystalline phases. The model predicts a sequence of phases observed in experiment: antiferroelectric SmC*A - ferrielectric SmC*FI1 - antiferroelectric SmC*FI2 (three and four layer periodic, respectively) - incommensurate SmC*α - SmA. We find that in the three-layer SmC*FI1 structure both the phase and the module of the order parameter (tilt angle) differ in smectic layers. This modulation of the tilt angle (and therefore of the layer spacing d) must lead to X-ray diffraction at the wave vectors Qs=2π s/d (s=n\pm{1}/{3}) even for the non-resonant scattering.