Abstract
We observed the orientational relaxation of a ferroelectric liquid crystal in SmC* phase by use of a dynamic infrared spectroscopy. Since we apply a small-amplitude oscillatory electric field, the phenomenon is linear with the amplitude. The sample was 2-metyl-butyl-4-(4-octyloxybenzol-oxy)-benzoate(MBOBB). We aligned molecules homogeneously and made electric field parallel to smectic layers. This ferroelectric liquid crystal consists of two parts: a rigid core having a dipole moment and a flexible alkyl chain. Thus, the response of each part to electric field would be different. We made band assignments of some absorbance peaks and measured their frequency-dependent behavior. The relaxational behavior of absorbance peaks of the core was observed while dynamic change of absorbance peaks of the alkyl chain was not. This implies that the direction of the alkyl chain does not change upon the rotation of the molecule. The details will be shown at the meeting.
