Smectic-A to chiral smectic-C* phase transition in the mixture of ferroelectric liquid crystal and ferromagnetic nanoparticles

Experimental results showed the significant impact of ferromagnetic nanoparticles on the smectic-A to chiral smectic-C (SmA-Sme ) phase transition. This article presents the thermodynamical description in the mixture of ferroelectric liquid crystal and ferromagnetic nanoparticles. The model is based on Flory-Huggins free energy of isotropic mixing and Landau free energy. The impact of ferromagnetic nanoparticles on the spontaneous polarization, tilt angle, transition temperature and dielectric susceptibility near the SmA-Sme phase transition is discussed. Various topologies in the phase diagrams are discussed clearly. Both the qualitative quantitative agreement between experiments and theory are observed. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.