Author/Editor		Muševič, I; Žekš, B; Blinc, R; Rasing, Th
Title		Ferroelectric liquid crystals: from the plane wave to the multisoliton limit
Type		članek
Source		Int J Mod Phys B
Vol. and No.		Letnik 9, št. 18-19
Publication year		1995
Volume		str. 2321-62
Language		eng
Abstract		In the presence of external fields or in restricted geometries, the originally continuous helical symmetry of the Sm C phase is broken by the appearence of field- or geometry-induced soliton-like domain walls. As a result of this symmetry breaking, a crossover between the plane-wave-like and soliton-like regime occurs in both static and dynamic properties which is responsible for some remarkable phenomena such as field-induced optical biaxiality or a field-induced band structure of collective excitations. Whereas we find in the plane-wave-like regime a degenerate soft mode which splits below the Sm A-Sm C transition into a symmetry recovering Goldstone-phason-mode and an amplitudon mode, we find in the soliton regime a splitting of the phason mode into acoustic and optic-like branches separated by a band gap. Within the same framework we also discuss other remarkable and extraordinary properties such as reentrant phases, Lisfhitz points, one dimensional photonic band gaps and thickness dependent phase diagrams.
Descriptors		PHYSICS MODELS, THEORETICAL