Electric-field-induced layer buckling in chiral smectic-A liquid crystals

X-ray-scattering data from chiral smectic-A liquid crystals under an applied electric field have been analyzed to investigate the layer-buckling instability. A quantitative description of the scattering data at all values of the field is obtained via calculation of the minimal-energy layer displacement profiles determined from the continuum smectic free energy. From this analysis the real-space layer-buckling profiles are determined, revealing a sinusoid to soliton evolution with increasing field.