抄録
A simple molecular theoretical model is proposed to analyse the phase transitions between subphases of SmCA* liquid crystals. The present model involves dipolar and quadrupolar interactions between SmCA* molecules which are related to the intratayer interaction and a interlayer long-range interactions. A local molecurar field is derived in a general form assuming a heterogeneous molecular field in each layer with a periodic structure. From numerical computations, one finds the Devil's staircase behaviour of the characteristic wave numbers of polar and quadrupolar molecular orderings. It is also found that SmCα* phase may be explained as a result of the long-range competitive quadrupolar interaction rather than the dipolar interactions previously concerned.
