The electroclinic effect and modulated phases in smectic liquid crystals

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We explore the possibility that the large electroclinic effect observed in ferroelectric liquid crystals arises from the presence of an ordered array of disclination lines and walls. If the spacing of these defects is in the subvisible range, this modulated phase would be similar macroscopically to a smectic A phase. The application of an electric field distorts the array, producing a large polarization, and hence a large electroclinic effect. We show that with suitable elastic parameters and sufficiently large chirality, the modulated phase is favored over the smectic A and helically twisted smectic C* phases. We propose various experimental tests of this scenario.