Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.351, 323-333, 2000
Formation and stability of smectic C chevrons
We have investigated theoretically chevron formation in smectic C materials and the transformation of this chevron structure to a tilted layer structure as the cell is sheared. We find a series of transition temperatures at which the behaviour of the cell critically changes and the number of possible cell configurations increases. These structures include tilted layers, single chevrons, multiple chevrons and asymmetric chevrons. Although most of the more complex multiple chevron structures are unstable we show, using a relatively simple dynamical model, that these structures may appear transiently during the formation of the stable, single chevron structure.