Author/Editor     Žekš, B; Carlsson, T; Filipič, C; Urbanc, B
Title     Thermodynamic model of ferroelectric liquid crystals and its microscopic basis
Type     članek
Source     Ferroelectrics
Vol. and No.     Letnik 84
Publication year     1988
Volume     str. 3-14
Language     eng
Abstract     The properties of the extended thermodynamic model (Phys. Rev. A 36, 1484 (1987)) of the ferroelectric liquid crystals, which can describe the anomalous thermodynamic behaviour of these systems in the chiral smectic C* phase, are reviewed. In the model the bilinear as well as biquadratic reviewed coupling between the tilt of molecules and the spontaneous polarization is included. The bilinear coupling is of a chiral nature and therefore small. This leads in the smectic C* phase close to the transition from the smectic A phase to cross-over effects between the regime, where because of small tilt only bilinear coupling is important, to the regime, where the biquadratic coupling also becomes relevant. A microscopic model is introduced, which describes the coupling between the tilt of molecules and the orientation of molecular dipole, which is perpendicular to the long molecular axis. It is shown that the microscopic model is consistent with the extended thermodynamic model and the parameters of the thermodynamic model are expressed in terms of the microscopic parameters.
Descriptors     THERMODYNAMICS
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
MODELS, THEORETICAL