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Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Electric-field-induced transition between the polarization-modulated and ferroelectric smectic- C(S) P(F)* liquid
Michi Nakata1, Darren R Link, Yoichi Takanishi
1Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama 2-12-1, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Abstract:
We report x-ray microbeam studies of a bent-core liquid crystalline material with chiral citronellyl tails. This material has an equilibrium polarization-modulated smectic- CP (PM-SmCP) state exhibiting the B7 texture upon slow cooing from the isotropic while a metastable chiral synclinic ferroelectric Sm-CP state (Sm- C(S) P(*)(F) ) is obtained on quenching from the isotropic. The polarization modulated phase PM-Sm C(S) P(*)(F) shows typical x-ray patterns having multiple satellite peaks around the first-order layer reflection, indicating undulated layers, while the metastable Sm- C(S) P(*)(F) state exhibits a single layering peak indicating flat layers. The Sm- C(S) P(*)(F) state is also induced by the application of an electric field larger than the threshold field ( E(th) ) and thermally returns to the polarization modulated PM-Sm C(S) P(*)(F) structure.
