Ultrafast, electric field-induced fingers in an anticlinic liquid crystal

Propagating fingers of synclinic liquid crystalline phase were observed to invade the anticlinic phase for applied electric fields E larger than a cha racteristic threshold field E-th. The front velocity was found to be highly non-linear in E, with enormous velocities of at least 10 cm s(-1), and per haps as high as 400 cm s(-1) for the maximum applied field. These are by fa r the largest velocities ever observed for a liquid crystal. The results ar e discussed theoretically, including the possibilities of a field-dependent molecular interaction coefficient and shear thinning.