Thresholdless Switching in Homogeneous Cells and Antiferroelectric Conoscopic Figures in Free-Standing Films as Observed in A Binary SC*-Like Mixture

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Abstract
To elucidate the V-shaped switching reported by Inui et al., we have studied another binary mixture. In its free-standing film, several subphases were observed in the ordinary sequence, indicating frustration between ferro- and antiferro-electricity; in particular, the antiferroelectric subphase exists in a temperature range as wide as 22 °C and the helical pitch is longer than 2. 5 μm. In a homogeneous cell, however, only two liquid crystal phases were distinguished; one is SA and the other is a phase characterized by the nearly V-shaped switching. We have concluded that the substrate interfaces induce tilting randomization, breaking the reduced intrinsic tilting correlation in adjacent layers.