INFLUENCE OF BACKFLOW ON THE REORIENTATION DYNAMICS OF FERROELECTRIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS

The elasto hydrodynamic equations for coupled reorientation and flow in surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid-crystal cells have been solved numerically and the results are compared to the case in which the flow effects are neglected. Our simulations show that flow generally makes the switching faster in the case of the dipoles being in an unstable equilibrium state in an applied field. Our calculations show that it is important to include the backflow in the reorientation dynamics in order to have the correct switching picture.