Alignment and switching properties of an antiferroelectric liquid crystal

Abstract In this paper, we present our investigations on an antiferroelectric liquid crystal (CS4000-CHISSO, Japan). We begin with some data of physical properties such as polarisation, tilt angle and threshold field, and followed by a description of the alignment process of the liquid crystal CS4000. The best results are obtained when the sample was aligned by rubbing one of the glass plates coated with polyvinylalcohol and an electric field is applied during cooling from SmA to SmC*A phase. In the last part, we present the different electro-optic modes associated to the pretransitional and transition effects of the antiferroelectric compound.