A molecular perspective on the emergence of long-range polar order from an isotropic fluid

The ferroelectric nematic phase (N$_{\text{F}}$) has quickly become the most studied system in liquid crystal research. In this work, we investigate the origin of such polar structure by studying a compound for which the N$_{\text{F}}$ phase directly follows the isotropic liquid phase on cooling, making it a particularly interesting system. Our experimental results evidence the presence of polar correlations already in the high-temperature phase, in which ferroelectric order can be induced under a sufficiently strong electric field. In the N$_{\text{F}}$ phase, molecular dynamics and polar correlations are investigated through detailed dynamic dielectric measurements, while second harmonic generation experiments evidence a large value of the main coefficient of the second order dielectric susceptibility tensor. Lastly, experimentally determined parameters are employed for calculations based on a recently proposed theoretical model for the stability of the N$_{\text{F}}$ phase. The obtained results suggest that the parallel alignment of dipoles is driven by a subtle interplay between electrostatic and excluded volume interactions.