Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 104
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15104-6

Regular Article

Dynamics of Helfrich-Hurault deformations in smectic-A liquid crystals

Institute for Problems of Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

^* e-mail: miran@mail.ru

Received: 21 May 2015
Revised: 7 August 2015
Accepted: 26 August 2015
Published online: 29 September 2015

Abstract

A dynamics of the Helfrich-Hurault deformations in the SmA sample in the case of a rigid homeotropic anchoring has been theoretically investigated. It has been found that, unlike the Freedericksz transition, in the nematic liquid crystals, both the switching-on and switching-off characteristic times for this phenomenon are linearly proportional to the SmA sample thickness, and the switching-off process is much faster than the switching-on one.