Influence of Ionic Conductivity in Polymer Dispersed Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystals (PDAFLC): A Comparison of Critical Fields

Abstract Theoretically critical unwinding field was studied using Landau free energy model of three different geometrical configuration of antiferroelectric liquid crystals. In this study, we considered the influence of ionic conductivity both in pure antiferroelectric liquid crystals and polymer dispersed antiferroelectric liquid crystals. We observed that the modified elastic constant which accounted for the interaction of ionic conductivity and polymer cross-linked chains is very much responsible for the variation of critical field.