Piezoelectricity of mechanically oriented S‐elastomers

Abstract

Abstract Ferroelectricity and thus piezoelectricity are well known features of low molar mass chiral smectic C (S c * ) liquid crystals. We present a new technique to orientate macroscopically the director as well as the smectic layers of a S c * ‐polymer network by applying a suitable mechanical field. The uniform orientation of the network film is checked by X‐ray diffraction. According to the phase symmetry electromechanical measurements indicate the existence of a polar axis of the network and the direct as well as the inverse piezoelectric effect is demonstrated.