Unconventional elasticity in smectic-A elastomers

Olaf Stenull and T. C. Lubensky
Phys. Rev. E 76, 011706 – Published 18 July 2007

Abstract

We study two aspects of the elasticity of smectic-A elastomers that make these materials genuinely and qualitatively different from conventional uniaxial rubbers. Under strain applied parallel to the layer normal, monodomain smectic-A elastomers exhibit a drastic change in Young’s modulus above a threshold strain value of about 3%, as has been measured in experiments by [Nishikawa and Finkelmann, Macromol. Chem. Phys. 200, 312 (1999)]. Our theory predicts that such strains induce a transition to a smectic-C-like state and that it is this transition that causes the change in elastic modulus. We calculate the stress-strain behavior as well as the tilt of the smectic layers and the molecular orientation for strain along the layer normal, and we compare our findings with the experimental data. We also study the electroclinic effect in chiral smectic-A* elastomers. According to experiments by [Lehmann et al., Nature (London) 410, 447 (2001)] and [Köhler et al., Appl. Phys. A 80, 381 (2003)], this effect leads in smectic-A* elastomers to a giant or, respectively, at least very large lateral electrostriction. Incorporating polarization into our theory, we calculate the height change of smectic-A* elastomer films in response to a lateral external electric field, and we compare this result to the experimental findings.

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  • Received 31 January 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.76.011706

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Olaf Stenull*

  • Fachbereich Physik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Campus Duisburg, 47048 Duisburg, Germany

T. C. Lubensky

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

  • *Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

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Vol. 76, Iss. 1 — July 2007

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