FLUCTUATION FORCES AND THE DEVILS STAIRCASE OF FERROELECTRIC SMECTIC C-ASTERISK-S

We show that there exists a novel long range interaction in ferroelect ric Sm-C materials due to thermally excited polarization waves, We pr opose that this interaction is the long range repulsion whose existenc e had been postulated earlier to explain the long period ferrielectric phases observed near the ferroelectric to antiferroelectric phase tra nsition.