Freedericksz transition in an anticlinic liquid crystal

It is shown experimentally that a very-long-pitch, surface-stabilized. anti clinic liquid crystal undergoes a two-step electric-field-induced transitio n to the synclinic phase. The liquid crystal remains undistorted below a th reshold held E-th. For E > E-th, a Freedericksz transition occurs, wherein molecules in adjacent smectic layers undergo unequal azimuthal rotations ab out the layer normal. At higher fields a transition to the synclinic phase occurs via solitary waves.