Viscoelastic Properties of the Smectic A* and C* Phases Studied by a New Dielectric Method

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Abstract
A method for the determination of rotational viscosity and elasticity associated with the director rotation on the C * cone is proposed. The method is based on measurements of the Goldstone mode dielectric strength and relaxation frequency, supplemented with values for spontaneous polarization, tilt angle and pitch. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the soft mode dielectric strength and relaxation frequency has been measured in the A * and C * phases. From the measurements in the A * phase we have evaluated the temperature dependence of the soft mode rotational viscosity which was found to exhibit a critical behaviour of the form γθ≈(T-T c)-0.25.