A model of the reentrant phase transition of a smectic C*liquid crystal under magnetic field

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Abstract
We analyzed the properties of a smectic C* liquid crystal under a magnetic field H applied parallel to the layers, using a Landau free energy functional with a term (n 3 x dn y /dz–n 3 y dn x /dz) (nx and ny are the components of the order parameter) and a term proportional to H2 . We did not use the one-harmonic approximation, but rather solved numerically the Euler-Lagrange equations for nx and ny . From these solutions, we found the free energy as a function of the temperature and the magnetic field and constructed the phase diagram. The SmC* phase is reentrant (sequence SmA-SmC*-SmC-SmC* with decreasing temperature) for some values of H, as observed experimentally.