Soft elasticity and microstructure in smectic C elastomers

Abstract

Smectic C elastomers are layered materials exhibiting a solid-like elastic response along the layer normal and a rubbery one in the plane. The set of strains minimizing the elastic energy contains a one-parameter family of simple stretches associated with an internal degree of freedom, coming from the in-plane component of the director. We investigate soft elasticity and the corresponding microstructure by determining the quasiconvex hull of the set , and use this to propose experimental tests that should make the predicted soft response observable.