Homogeneous and heterogeneous switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals

An experimental investigation of hysteretic switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals has been carried out. It is shown that in switching from th e antiferroelectric state to the ferroelectric state there exists both a he terogeneous process involving the growth of finger-like domains and a homog eneous process in which the whole cell uniformly switches. At high field sl ew rates the homogeneous process dominates. However, ferroelectric to antif erroelectric switching involves only a heterogeneous process. A simple anal ytic model is then used to describe the experimental results and thus under stand the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous switching.