This study continues the development of the Landau–de Gennes theory of chevron structure in a surface-stabilized Sm-$C$ liquid crystal cell. In this paper we study in detail the consequences of varying the magnitude of the planar surface anchoring. The strength of the anchoring is found to govern the order of the phases close to the $\mathrm{Sm}-A–\mathrm{Sm}-C$ phase transition. Depending on the strength of the anchoring, we find two possible transition sequences: (a) $\mathrm{Sm}-\overrightarrow{A}\mathrm{bookshelf}$ $\mathrm{Sm}-\overrightarrow{C}\mathrm{nonplanar}$ chevron; (b) $\mathrm{Sm}-\overrightarrow{A}\mathrm{planar}$ $\mathrm{chevro}\overrightarrow{n}\mathrm{nonplanar}$ chevron.

• Received 9 October 1997

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.57.5651