Af. Terzis et al., QUANTITATIVE CALCULATION OF SPONTANEOUS POLARIZATION IN FERROELECTRICLIQUID-CRYSTALS, The Journal of chemical physics, 107(10), 1997, pp. 4061-4069
We compute the spontaneous polarization, P, exhibited by a class of fe
rroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) with systematically varying structu
res in an effort to critically test a recently proposed model [D. J. P
hotinos and E. T. Samulski, Science 270, 783 (1995)] which implies tha
t polarity is indigenous to tilted smectic phases. We evaluate the fir
st and second rank segmental order parameters of the FLC compounds by
taking into account the essential features of molecular structure and
conformation subjected to the general stratification constraints in th
e model smectic FLC. The results compare favorably with available expe
rimental values of P and bond order parameters obtained from NMR measu
rements. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.