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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Unexpected field-induced phase transitions between ferrielectric and antiferroelectric liquid crystal structures
S Jaradat1, P D Brimicombe, C Southern
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Liquid crystals are intriguing electrically responsive soft matter systems. We report previously unexplored field-induced changes in the structures of some frustrated liquid crystal phases and describe them theoretically. Specifically, we have discovered using resonant x-ray scattering that the four-layer intermediate smectic phase can undergo either a transition to the ferrielectric (three-layer) phase or to the ferroelectric phase, depending on temperature. Our studies of intermediate phases using electric fields offer a way to test theories that describe ferroelectricity in self-assembling fluids.
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