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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Chiral ground states of ferroelectric liquid crystals
Priyanka Kumari1,2, Bijaya Basnet1,2, Maxim O Lavrentovich3,4
1Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA.
Abstract:
Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals are formed by achiral molecules with large dipole moments. Their three-dimensional orientational order is described as unidirectionally polar. We demonstrate that the ground state of a flat slab of a ferroelectric nematic unconstrained by externally imposed alignment directions is chiral, with left- and right-handed twists of polarization. Although the helicoidal deformations and defect walls that separate domains of opposite handedness increase the elastic energy, the twists reduce the electrostatic energy and become weaker when the material is doped with ions. This work shows that the polar orientational order of molecules could trigger chirality in soft matter with no chemically induced chiral centers.
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