M. Cepic et al., Possible stable structures of chiral polar smectics with significant interactions between next nearest layers, MOLEC CRYST, 351, 2000, pp. 209-219
We analyse stable structures in the model where interactions between the ne
arest and the next nearest layers are taken into acount. Interactions can b
e noncompeting or competing. We find five different stable structures stabl
e at different values of model parameters. Three of them are already known:
the ferroelectric SmC*, the antiferroelectric SmC*(A) phase and by recent
experiments confirmed helicoidal shea-pitch SmC*(alpha) structure. Aditiona
lly we find two structures, the structure with a primitive cell which exten
ds over 2 smectic layers SmC*(2) and SmC*(4) the primitive cell cosists of
4 smectic layers.