We report a dynamic light-scattering study of the fluctuation modes in a chiral smectic- A liquid crystal, which exhibits a stable one-dimensional modulation of the layers. A novel, very low-frequency hydrodynamic mode is observed, which tends to restore the symmetry of flat layers. The nonhydrodynamic director fluctuation mode is also found to be anomalously slow. Each of these modes is split into two components. The experimental results are quantitatively explained by a continuum elastic theory of the modulated smectic structure.
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Sprunt et al. (1995) studied this question.
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