A theoretical comparison of critical field of an antiferroelectric liquid crystals in Freedericksz transition

Abstract

The critical unwinding field was studied theoretically using Landau-Ginzburg free energy model of pure antiferroelectric liquid crystals (AFLC), influenced by flexoelectric effect in presence of spin–spin interaction. In this study, we constructed an appropriate Landau free energy using the flexoelectric effect and spin–spin interaction in AFLC. Using the Landau-Ginzburg equation of azimuthal angles, we observed that the flexoelectric effect in AFLC did not make any difference in the critical unwinding for both the cases when elastic constant was keeping as constant or inter-layer interaction strength was keeping as constant. But for AFLC in presence of spin–spin interaction, the reverse electric field and the modified elastic constant were created a significant change in the critical unwinding field in compare to others.