An antiferreoelectric bent-core liquid crystal compound which exhibits a uniaxial SmA- biaxial SmAPA transition has been mixed with a non-liquid crystalline compound containing optically active element. The formed mixture has been used to study the effect of branched terminal group in chiral form on mesomorphic properties. These were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing optical microscopy (POM), circular dichroism (CD), X-ray diffraction and electro-optical techniques (EO). All the mixtures with low concentration of the chiral compound kept showing the two original orthogonal smectic phases. However, the results of optically uniaxial texture in vertical aligned samples, the induced birefringence upon applying electric field and the arising of CD peaks in the temperature range of antiferreoelectric biaxial SmAPA suggested the emergence of a helical structure in which the helical axis is perpendicular to the layer. This is very unique in the sense that so far the helical structure has never been reported to appear in orthogonal smectic phases.  Fig 1. Electrooptical switching of the mixture in an in-plane switching cell

Effect of chiral branching on the polar orthogonal smectic liquid crystalline phase formed by bent-core molecules

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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