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Transitions between paraelectric and ferroelectric phases of bent-core smectic liquid crystals in the bulk and in thin freely suspended films

Alexey Eremin, Martin Floegel, Ulrike Kornek, Stephan Stern, and Ralf Stannarius

Hajnalka Nádasi and Wolfgang Weissflog

Chenhui Zhu, Yongqiang Shen, Cheol Soo Park, Joseph Maclennan, and Noel Clark

  • Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Institute for Experimental Physics, ANP, D-39016 Magdeburg, Germany

  • Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Physical Chemistry, von Danckelmann-Platz 4, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany

  • Department of Physics, and the Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

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Phys. Rev. E 86, 051701 – Published 5 November, 2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.86.051701

Abstract

We report on the contrasting phase behavior of a bent-core liquid crystal with a large opening angle between the mesogenic units in the bulk and in freely suspended films. Second-harmonic generation experiments and direct observation of director inversion walls in films in an applied electric field reveal that the nonpolar smectic C phase observed in bulk samples becomes a ferroelectric “banana” phase in films, showing that a mesogen with a small steric moment can give a phase with polar order in freely suspended films even when the corresponding bulk phase is paraelectric.

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Phys. Rev. E 86, 051701– Published 5 November, 2012
  • Received 6 July 2012

©2012 American Physical Society

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