Surface and bulk reorientation in ferroelectric liquid crystals

The switching processes in ferroelectric liquid crystals are probed optical ly using a combination of transmission between crossed polarizers and surfa ce evanescent field reflection techniques. This allows the behaviour of the liquid crystal director reorientation to be studied in the bulk of a devic e and near the surface simultaneously. Interesting behaviour is observed, a nd it is found that-the processes can be adequately modelled using a simple one-dimensional model to represent the director structure across the thick ness of the liquid crystal laver.