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Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals are polar fluids characterized by microscopic orientational ordering and macroscopic spontaneous polarizations. Within these fluids, walls that separate domains of different polarizations are…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-06-21 Shengzhu Yi , Zening Hong , Zhongjie Ma , Chao Zhou , Miao Jiang , Xiang Huang , Mingjun Huang , Satoshi Aya , Rui Zhang , Qi-Huo Wei

The isotropic to ferroelectric nematic liquid transition had been theoretically studied over one hundred years ago, but its experimental studies are rare. Here we present polarizing optical microscopy studies and theoretical considerations…

We show that development of polar order may spontaneously destroy the lamellar structure of a liquid crystal. This results in an unusual sequence of phases with the ferroelectric nematic phase appearing below a non-polar smectic phase. The…

Investigations of the phase transitions and self-organization in the magnetic aggregates are of the fundamental and applied interest. The long-range ordering structures described in the Tom\'anek's systematization (M. Yoon, and D.…

Materials Science · Physics 2015-06-03 B. M. Tanygin , V. F. Kovalenko , M. V. Petrychuk , S. A. Dzyan

Surface alignment of a recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal (NF) is usually achieved by buffed polymer films, which produce a unidirectional polar alignment of the spontaneous electric polarization. We demonstrate that…

Polar liquid crystals possess three dimensional orientational order coupled with unidirectional electric polarity, yielding fluid ferroelectrics. Such polar phases are generated by rod-like molecules with large electric dipole moments.…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-08-06 Jordan Hobbs , Calum J. Gibb , Richard. J. Mandle

Strongly dipolar mesogenic compounds with a chiral center located in a lateral alkyl chain were synthesized, and shown to form the ferroelectric nematic phase. The presence of molecular chirality induced a helical structure in both the N…

The pioneering realization of suspensions of ferroelectric nanoparticles in a nematic host was one of excellent contributions of Yuri Reznikov to the science of liquid crystals [Y. Reznikov et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 82 (2003) 191]. This…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-12-14 Nerea Sebastian , Darja Lisjak , Martin Čopič , Oleksandr Buchnev , Alenka Mertelj

Ferroelectricity, a hallmark of spontaneous inversion-symmetry breaking, has been a central concept in condensed matter physics and functional materials research, yet recent discoveries are revealing that switchable polarization can emerge…

Materials Science · Physics 2026-05-11 Yudi Yang , Changming Ke , Shi Liu

It is demonstrated based on continuum mechanics modeling and simulation that it is possible to obtain polycrystalline ceramic ferroelectric materials which beggars single crystals in electromechanical properties. The local inhomogeneities…

Materials Science · Physics 2010-11-15 K. P. Jayachandran , J. M. Guedes , H. C. Rodrigues

The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic (NF) liquid crystals (LC) have been reported to show an extraordinarily large value of the real part of the dielectric constant at low frequencies. However, it was argued by Clark et al in…

Ferroelectric HfO$_2$ has emerged as a highly promising material for high-density nonvolatile memory and nanoscale transistor applications. However, the uncertain origin of polarization in HfO$_2$ limits our ability to fully understand and…

Materials Science · Physics 2026-03-11 Seongjoo Jung , Turan Birol

We show that stable, freely suspended liquid crystal films can be made from the ferroelectric nematic ($\mathrm{N_F}$) phase and from the recently discovered polar, lamellar $\mathrm{SmZ_A}$ and $\mathrm{SmA_F}$ phases. The $\mathrm{N_F}$…

Field theories predict that phase transitions sequentially breaking continuous and discrete symmetries can generate hybrid topological structures in which defects of different dimensionalities merge. We report experimental and numerical…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-12-09 Shengzhu Yi , Chao Zhou , Zening Hong , Zhongjie Ma , Mingjun Huang , Satoshi Aya , Rui Zhang , Qi-Huo Wei

Ferrofluids are familiar as colloidal suspensions of ferromagnetic nanoparticles in aqueous or organic solvents. The dispersed particles are randomly oriented but their moments become aligned if a magnetic field is applied, producing a…

Couplings between ferroelectric and magnetic orders offer promising routes toward low-dissipation electronics. However, such couplings are notably rare, largely due to the poor compatibility between insulating band structures and…

Materials Science · Physics 2026-03-20 Jan Priessnitz , Anna Birk Hellenes , Riccardo Comin , Libor Šmejkal

The recently discovered heliconical ferroelectric nematic (NTBF) phase is a unique example of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in a proper ferroelectric fluid. In this study, we investigate four homologous series of mesogenic compounds,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-08-12 Grant J. Strachan , Ewa Górecka , Damian Pociecha

So-called polar liquid crystals possess spontaneous long-range mutual orientation of their electric dipole moments, conferring bulk polarity to fluid phases of matter. The combination of polarity and fluidity leads to complex phase…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-08-22 Jordan Hobbs , Calum J. Gibb , Richard J. Mandle

Surface interactions are responsible for many properties of condensed matter, ranging from crystal faceting to the kinetics of phase transitions. Usually, these interactions are polar along the normal to the interface and apolar within the…

We report the smectic $A_F$, a new liquid crystal phase of the ferroelectric nematic realm. The smectic $A_F$ is a phase of small polar, rod-shaped molecules which form two-dimensional fluid layers spaced by approximately the mean molecular…