Poisson's ratio of monodomain liquid crystalline elastomers

Monodomains of smectic C liquid crystalline elastomers were prepared by controlled stretching of a polydomain thin film. Specimens were prepared from this film for stress-strain study. A Poisson's ratio of zero was found at small strains for uniaxial stretching perpendicular to the director For uniaxial strain parallel to the director, Poisson's ratios of approximately 0.4-0.5 were found (by extrapolation) for very small strains. A modulus anisotropy of 8 was found for stretching parallel versus perpendicular to the director.