Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.366, 2637-2648, 2001
Alignment instability induced by irradiation of visible light in frustoelectric liquid crystalline cells showing the V-shaped switching
Irradiation of the powerful visible light from the laser expedites the deterioration of the frustoelectric liquid crystalline cells (Inui mixture) showing the V-shaped switching. This deterioration is caused by the light absorption in the aligning layer, which strongly influences the molecule-surface polar interaction; this cannot be observed in the cell with the transparent aligning material in the used visible light region. This is observed just in the tilted smectic X* phase, not in the SmA phase. Irradiation during the switching leads to hysteresis in the V-shaped pattern and changes even the surface molecular alignment. These results can be explained by the shielding of the surface charge due to the alignment of the spontaneous polarization and the disturbed polar anchoring.