Electric field-induced director orientation of smectic-A domains in an isotropic phase

Electric field-induced director orientation of smectic-A phase in an isotropic phase has been studied with a polarizing microscope using the binary mixture of octyloxycyanobiphenyl and dodecyl alcohol. Electric field is applied to the samples in which spherical smectic-A domains with and without defects in an isotropic phase are observed. Field-induced orientation of smectic-A director is observed for spherical smectic-A domains with defects but not observed for those without defects below electric field strength of 1.0 V/mum, indicating that the presence of defects facilitates the director orientation. The threshold field for the smectic-A director orientation varies from smectic-A domain to domain, suggesting that the threshold field is dependent on the structure of defects.