X-Ray Diffraction Studies on the Phase-Transformational Behavior of a Smectic Liquid-Crystalline Elastomer Composed of Chiral Mesogens

Structural changes through successive phase transformations of a chiral smectic liquid-crystalline elastomer are investigated by X-ray scattering technique. In uniaxially deformed elastomers, the smectic layer seemingly tilts even in the SmA phase, in which an in-plane chevron structure formed in the tilted smectic phase. On the basis of an analysis of the layer reflection peaks, the layer correlation length in the tilted smectic phases is shorter than that in the non-tilted SmA phase, though smectic layers in the tilted smectic phases are better ordered than those in SmA.