Faraday waves on finite thickness smectic A liquid crystal and polymer gel materials

We studied with linear stability theory the Faraday waves on the surface of a smectic A liquid crystal and polymer gel-vapor systems of finite thicknesses. Model smectic A material exhibits alternating subharmonic-harmonic patterns of stability curves in a plot of driving acceleration versus wave number. For the case of highly viscoelastic gel media there are coexisting surface modes of harmonic and subharmonic types that correspond to peaks in the plot of the critical acceleration as a function of wave frequency. Larger frequencies lead to subsequent peaks of coexisting subharmonic waves only.