Local layer structures and their formation process in a half-V-shaped switching ferroelectric liquid crystal (HV-FLC) were investigated by means of synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction. The HV-FLC is a FLC that has a cholesteric–chiral smectic C (Ch–SmC*) phase transition sequences. X-ray microdiffraction measurements revealed that the SmC* phase in the HV-FLC was composed of asymmetric chevron and inclined-bookshelf structures. In addition, temperature-controlled X-ray diffraction measurements showed that the transient layer structures appeared during the Ch to SmC* phase transition.
The ferroelectric liquid crystal material [4-[(4-methyloxyfenyl) carbonyloxyl] bifenyl-4′-yl]-(S)-2-methylbutoxypropionate containing a lateral methyl group on the aromatic ring of the alkoxybenzoate unit and two chiral carbons has been investigated by X-ray powder diffraction analysis at the 28 °C–105 °C temperature range. On cooling through the SmC temperature range, the layer spacing decreases from 28.3 to 27.7 Å with a small variation of average intermolecular distances. Lattice parameters of tetragonal and monoclinic crystalline phases occurring at lower temperatures have been determined.
The peculiar optic, dielectric and X‐ray diffraction properties of a fluorinated de Vries asymmetric diffuse cone‐model ferroelectric liquid crystal