Unique Electric Field Dependence of Apparent Tilt Angle in Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mixtures Consisting of Fluorine-Substituted Compounds

New ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures having perfluoroalkyl groups were prepared. Apparent tilt angles of these mixtures largely depended on the electric field. The tilt angle increased linearly under electric field in the range from 0 to 12 V, and decreased under higher electric field over 12 V. The mechanism of this theta-V property has been proposed and a new light-modulator has been designed using the linear dependence of the tilt angles on the electric field.