Electric field effects in the smectic a phase

The electric field induced distorsion of a planar sample of smectic A liquid crystal has been studied using both an optic method (microscopic observations) and a capacitive analysis. The results exhibit two mechanisms whose relative balance depends on the temperature. It seems that close to the smectic to nematic transition temperature the main mechanism involves the elasticity of the smectic while far below this temperature the plasticity is more important