抄録
Electric field-induced effect on pattern formation of smectic-A filaments has been investigated in the binary mixture of octyloxycyanobiphenyl and dodecyl alcohol. As the mixture is cooled below its transition temperature, the smectic-A phase grows into a collection of filaments directly from an isotropic phase [1]. Without the electric-field application, these filaments, which have a constant radius, buckle three-dimensionally as they grow. When the liquid crystal samples are subjected to electric field, the three-dimensional patterns of smectic-A filaments are changed to two-dimensional periodic wavy patterns of the filaments [3]. The two-dimensional pattern is formed on a plane perpendicular to electric field. To understand the electric field-induced two-dimensional pattern formation process, the shape equations for the filaments have been derived by a variation of the sum of Gibbs free energy, curvature elastic energy, surface energy, and dielectric energy [2]. It is shown that this experimental finding can theoretically be explained within the framework of the theory.
