Electric-field-induced phase transitions in bent-core mesogens determined by x-ray diffraction

J. Ortega, C. L. Folcia, J. Etxebarria, J. Martínez-Perdiguero, J. A. Gallastegui, P. Ferrer, N. Gimeno, and M. Blanca Ros
Phys. Rev. E 84, 021707 – Published 23 August 2011

Abstract

The changes in the x-ray diffraction diagram induced by an electric field have been studied in four bent-core liquid crystals. Two of the compounds present columnar B1 phases and the other two show dark conglomerate (DC) structures. In the B1 materials the electric field gives rise to switchable phases whose diffraction pattern is that of the smectic C polar (SmCP) phase. In the DC structures the positions of the Bragg reflections remain essentially unaltered, but in one of the compounds the peaks become narrower under field, indicating that the correlation length of the smectic order increases. A slight enhancement of the smectic spacing is found in the DC phases upon field application.

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  • Received 15 April 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.021707

©2011 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. Ortega1,*, C. L. Folcia2, J. Etxebarria2, J. Martínez-Perdiguero2,†, J. A. Gallastegui3,4, P. Ferrer3,4, N. Gimeno5, and M. Blanca Ros5

  • 1Física Aplicada II, FCT/ZFT, UPV/EHU, Apartado 644, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain
  • 2Física de la Materia Condensada, FCT/ZFT, UPV/EHU, Apartado 644, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain
  • 3SpLine Spanish CRG beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, FR-38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
  • 4Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 3, ES-28049 Madrid, Spain
  • 5Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón (ICMA), Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Zaragoza-CSIC, E-50009 Zaragoza, Spain

  • *Corresponding author: josu.ortega@ehu.es
  • Present address: Departamento de Micro y Nanotecnologia, Tekniker, E-20600 Eibar, Spain

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Vol. 84, Iss. 2 — August 2011

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