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Ferroelectric order in liquid crystal phases of polar disk-shaped ellipsoids

Tushar Kanti Bose* and Jayashree Saha†

  • Department of Physics, University of Calcutta, 92 Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata-700009, India

  • *tkb.tkbose@gmail.com
  • †jsphy@caluniv.ac.in
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Phys. Rev. E 89, 052509 – Published 23 May, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.89.052509

Abstract

The demonstration of a spontaneous macroscopic ferroelectric order in liquid phases in the absence of any long range positional order is considered an outstanding problem of both fundamental and technological interest. Recently, we reported that a system of polar achiral disklike ellipsoids can spontaneously exhibit a long searched ferroelectric nematic phase and a ferroelectric columnar phase with strong axial polarization. The major role is played by the dipolar interactions. The model system of interest consists of attractive-repulsive Gay-Berne oblate ellipsoids embedded with two parallel point dipoles positioned symmetrically on the equatorial plane of the ellipsoids. In the present work, we investigate in detail the profound effects of changing the separation between the two symmetrically placed dipoles and the strength of the dipoles upon the existence of different ferroelectric discotic liquid crystal phases via extensive off-lattice N-P-T Monte Carlo simulations. Ferroelectric biaxial phases are exhibited in addition to the uniaxial ferroelectric fluids where the phase biaxiality results from the dipolar interactions. The structures of all the ferroelectric configurations of interest are presented in detail. Simple phase diagrams are determined which include different polar and apolar discotic fluids generated by the system.

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Phys. Rev. E 89, 052509– Published 23 May, 2014
  • Received 21 February 2014

©2014 American Physical Society

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