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Phys. Rev. B 52, R13075–R13078 (1995)

Reversible propagating fingers in an antiferroelectric liquid crystal

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Jian-feng Li, Xin-Yi Wang, Erik Kangas, P. L. Taylor, and Charles Rosenblatt
Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Yoshi-ichi Suzuki
Central R&D Laboratory, Showa Shell Sekiyu Kabushiki Kaishi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan

P. E. Cladis
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974

Received 28 August 1995; published in the issue dated 1 November 1995

Propagating fingerlike solitary waves are observed in an antiferroelectric liquid crystal on application of an electric field above a threshold field Eth. On reducing the field below Eth the fingers recede, also as solitary waves. The velocity of the waves, which to our knowledge is the fastest observed for a liquid crystal, scales approximately as E-Eth for E near Eth. A simple model, which includes a layer-layer coupling term, is presented and describes much of the observed behavior.

© 1995 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.52.R13075
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.52.R13075
PACS:
03.40.Kf, 61.30.-v
 
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