부산대학교 도서관

We observed diffraction patterns of smectic E (SmE) phase by using our home-made electron microscope. The advantage of our system is the low-electron beam; this significantly reduces the radiation damage to specimen, and enabled us to observe SmE films without any cryogenic technique. We found in particular that diffraction patterns of SmE phase as an induced smectic phase exhibit unidirectional rotations under electron beams. Since such rotations were not observed in the case of usual SmE phase, we revealed that induced SmE phase possesses well-regulated molecular aliments in the in-plane herringbone lattice, which realizes the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking.