In the last decade it has been experimentally found a periodic domain pattern arising in smectic C* liquid crystals in surface stabilized bookshelf geometry. Such a periodic texture appears after switching-off an external electric field, even in strong anchoring conditions. It has a static character and can be bidimensional, being dependent on both directions normal to the smectic planes and normal to the cell plates. In the present work an explanation to this phenomenon is proposed. According to our model in the antiferroelectric phase the biperiodic texture is a threshold phenomenon, appearing for values of the spontaneous polarization greater than a critical value, whereas in the ferroelectric phase this type of bidimensional instability is hindered.

The correlation between chemical structure and mesomorphic properties is one of the most important problems in liquid crystals science. 3,5-Disubstituted 1,2,4-oxadiazoles are very convenient model-compounds for studying the dependence of the LC properties on the molecular design. The transition temperatures and dielectric properties of 1,2,4-oxadiazoles depend significantly both on the position of the substituents with respect to the heterocycle and on their donor or acceptor features.