The Effect of Layer Spacing Changes in the SmA Phase on Defects Observed in SSFLC Devices.

The effect of the temperature dependence of the smectic layer spacing in the smectic-A (SmA) phase on the formation of defects in the ferroelectric smectic-$C^{\ast}$ ($SmC^{\ast}$) phase is investigated with x-ray scattering technique. The study is based on thin parallel-aligned surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal cells with two different alignment conditions, high pretilt $SiO_x$, alignment and low pretilt polyimide films. It is found that defects observed in the $SmC^{\ast}$ phase have much more profound dependence on the layer changes and chevron formation in the SmA phase than in the $SmC^{\ast}$ phase. We find that thermal layer expansion with decreasing temperature in the SmA phase suppresses the formation of defects observed in the SmC phase.