In synclinically tilted smectic phases, bent-core liquid crystal molecules aligned with the director in the plane of a cell boundary will, in general, have their molecular (bow) planes parallel to the boundary, normal to it, or at a well-defined intermediate orientation. A model describing the interaction of such bent-core (banana-shaped) molecules with planar surfaces that distinguishes energetically between molecules lying flat on the surface and those oriented edge on is given by a biaxial modification of the uniaxial surface anchoring expression used for chiral smectics of rod-shaped molecules. When combined with a field-induced straightening of the smectic layers, the model provides a mechanism for the transition from an analog to a bistable director response observed electro-optically in the ferroelectric banana-shaped material (R,S)-MHOBOW.

• Received 18 January 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.64.031706