Layer-network coupling in smectic elastomers

(Received 20 May 1994, accepted 18 July 1994)

Abstract
The complex coupling between elastic strains and smectic layer distortions in smectic A elastomers is re-analysed in terms of the penalty for the relative translations of layers with respect to the matrix in which they are embedded. This modifies the starting point of a recent theory of the elastic free energy of smectic A elastomers (Terentjev E.M. and Warner M., J. Phys. II France 4 (1994) 111-126), but leaves most of the analysis itself and the conclusions unchanged. In the large, layers move affinely with the elastic matrix, but there are layer fluctuations possible on a scale set by the mean size of chains in the network. There is a rigid constraint that uniform shear strains of the network produce corresponding uniform rotations of the smectic layer system.