Dielectric Modes in Antiferroelectric and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals in a Pure Enantiomeric Version and a Racemic Mixture

Abstract

The dielectric properties of synclinic (ferroelectric SmC*) and anticlinic (antiferroelectric SmCA*) smectic liquid crystals composed of molecules of one chiral version (S) are presented and compared with properties of racemic mixture (R, S), showing SmC and SmCA phases. The racemic mixture completely loses its ferroelectric and antiferroelectric properties. Surprisingly, only one dielectric mode observed in the antiferroelectric SmCA* phase disappeared in the dielectric response of the racemic SmCA phase. Additionally, we observed that in the SmC phase, seen in the racemic mixture, the weak dielectric mode (named the X mode) is detected, which seems to be the continuation of the PL mode existing in the racemic SmCA. Moreover, this mode in the racemic SmC has nothing to do with the Goldstone mode, typical for the SmC* phase. This paper describes in detail the real and imaginary parts of dielectric permittivity in smectic phases for the enantiomer and racemate with and without a DC field, compares the properties of the X and PL modes, and discusses the full scheme of dielectric modes in enantiomer and racemate.

Keywords

• antiferroelectric liquid crystal
• ferroelectric liquid crystal
• (S) enantiomer
• racemate
• chirality
• dielectric spectroscopy