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To develop a standard method for measurement of helical pitches of chiral smectic C (SmC*) liquid crystalline material, well aligned samples of DOBAMBC of various thicknesses are studied by applying an electric field and then shorting (electrically) it at the temperature of measurements. The removal of the electric field reforms the helices which eventually eliminate the adjustment of new helices due to interlayer transverse displacement of the molecules. The shorting of the sample minimizes the possibility of constraints which may arise due to depolarizing field. The method in principle involves changes amongst chiral smectic and smectic phase (SmC* ↔ SmC) thus providing the free value of the pitch in samples with thickness as low as 50 μm which is independent of the previous history of the sample.
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Biradar et al. (1986) studied this question.
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