Homogeneous and heterogeneous switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals

Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PJ, UK

Corresponding author: beccherelli@die.ing.uniromal.it

Received: 18 January 1999
Revised: 3 June 1999
Accepted: 2 February 2000
Published online: 15 March 2000

Abstract

An experimental investigation of hysteretic switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals has been carried out. It is shown that in switching from the antiferroelectric state to the ferroelectric state there exists both a heterogeneous process involving the growth of finger-like domains and a homogeneous process in which the whole cell uniformly switches. At high field slew rates the homogeneous process dominates. However, ferroelectric to antiferroelectric switching involves only a heterogeneous process. A simple analytic model is then used to describe the experimental results and thus understand the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous switching.