RESUMEN

We present modeling and analysis of smectic C phases of liquid crystals capable of sustaining spontaneous polarization. The layered liquid crystals are also assumed to be chiral. We study minimization of the total energy subject to electrostatic constraints. In order to determine mathematically and physically relevant boundary conditions, we appeal to the analogy between the current problem and the vorticity in fluids. We place a special emphasis on the nonlocal and self-energy effects arising from spontaneous polarization. We discuss examples pertaining to the electric field created by the liquid crystal in dielectric medium, and also to the possible role of a domain shape as an energy reduction mechanism.

RESUMEN

In this paper, we show how chiral materials are realized by embedding chiral objects (helices) in an isotropic medium. More precisely, we derive the Drude--Born--Fedorov constitutive relations, governing the propagation of electromagnetic waves in chiral media, from the standard constitutive relations for a homogeneous, isotropic medium by embedding in the medium a large number of regularly spaced, ramdomly oriented helical conductors, each modeled as a dipole.