First-principles experimental demonstration of ferroelectricity in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal: Polar domains and striking electro-optics.

ABSTRACT: We report the experimental determination of the structure and response to applied electric field of the lower-temperature nematic phase of the previously reported calamitic compound 4-[(4-nitrophenoxy)carbonyl]phenyl2,4-dimethoxybenzoate (RM734). We exploit its electro-optics to visualize the appearance, in the absence of applied field, of a permanent electric polarization density, manifested as a spontaneously broken symmetry in distinct domains of opposite polar orientation. Polarization reversal is mediated by field-induced domain wall movement, making this phase ferroelectric, a 3D uniaxial nematic having a spontaneous, reorientable polarization locally parallel to the director. This polarization density saturates at a low temperature value of ∼6 µC/cm², the largest ever mea

SUBMITTER: Chen X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7322023 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature