| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 39, Number 3, July I 1997
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 257 - 262 | |
| Section | Classical areas of phenomenology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i1997-00344-9 | |
| Published online | 01 September 2002 | |
Electroconvection in smectic C liquid-crystal films visualized by optical anisotropy
1
Universität-GH Paderborn, Institut für physikalische Chemie,
D-33095 Paderborn, Germany
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung - D-55021 Mainz, Germany
3
Universität Leipzig, Fakultät der Physik und Geowissenschaften,
Linnéstr. 5, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
Received:
26
August
1996
Accepted:
23
June
1997
Electrohydrodynamic convection due to the Carr-Helfrich (CH) effect
has been extensively investigated in nematics. It has been predicted
also for freely suspended smectic C and 
films. On the
other hand, in smectic A films another type of electroconvection
(vortex flow) has been described (Morris S. W., De Bruyn J. R. and
May A., Phys. Rev. Lett.
65 (1990) 2378)
but is not sufficiently understood by theory so far. We report
experiments on freestanding smectic C films in lateral AC electric
fields. A convective instability bifurcating continuously from the
homogeneous ground state is found. Evidently the mechanism of the
instability is of a similar type as in 
. The director field in
the convection vortices is directly visualized in the optical
texture.
PACS: 47.20.-k – Hydrodynamic stability / 61.30.-v – Liquid crystals
© EDP Sciences, 1997
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