Synthesis and properties of monodomain smectic-A liquid crystalline elastomers

Abstract

A smectic A polymer network having permanently, macroscopically uniformly aligned director and layers is successfully synthesized. The mechanical behavior of the S_A-elastomer is highly anisotropic. The modulus in the direction parallel to the layer normal is two orders of magnitude larger than the modulus perpendicular to the layer normal direction. By applying a mechanical stress parallel to the layers no structural changes occur, however we observe a phenomenon based on the in-plane fluidity of smectic layers.