Phase diagram of confined antiferroelectric liquid crystals in an electricfield

We study the electric-field-induced transitions in antiferroelectric liquid crystals in a model that takes into account the intralayer elastic distort ion, the nearest-neighbor interlayer interaction, the coupling of the spont aneous polarization with the applied field, the dielectric anisotropy, and the surface anchoring. We find that the field-induced phase sequence has a critical dependence on cell thickness. For moderately thin cells (thickness > 0.1 mum) with moderately strong anchoring (surface coupling similar to 1 0(-4) J/m(2)), the system, in departing from the initial anticlinic alignme nt, first undergoes a continuous Freederiksz transition, then a first-order surface boundary-layer transition, and finally a first-order or continuous transition to a complete synclinic ordering. Reducing the cell thickness t o less than 0.1 mum will make the Freedericksz transition and even the boun dary-layer transition vanish.