Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 018304 (2005) [4 pages]Phase Transitions and Soft Elasticity of Smectic ElastomersReceived 23 September 2004; published 10 January 2005 Smectic-C elastomers can be prepared by cross-linking, e.g., liquid crystal polymers, in the smectic-A phase followed by a cooling through the smectic-A to smectic-C phase transition. This transition from D∞h to C2h symmetry spontaneously breaks rotational symmetry in the smectic plane as does the transition from a smectic-A to a biaxial smectic phase with D2h symmetry. We study these transitions and the emergent elasticity of the smectic-C and biaxial phases in three related models and show that these phases exhibit soft elasticity analogous to that of nematic elastomers. © 2005 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018304
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.018304
PACS:
83.80.Va, 42.70.Df, 61.30.–v
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