Related papers: Ferroelectric Nematic and Smectic Liquid Crystals …
We demonstrate the crystallization of a polar octafluoronaphthalene (OFN, \OFN)--phthalazine (Phth, \Phth) cocrystal, formed in a 1:2 ratio by slow evaporation. The crystal structure and vibrational properties of the cocrystal were…
The behavior as a function of temperature of very thin films (10 to 200 nm) of pentylcyanobiphenyl (5CB) on silicon substrates is reported. In the vicinity of the nematic/isotropic transition we observe a coexistence of two regions of…
Spin nematic (SN) is a magnetic analog of classical liquid crystals, a fourth state of matter exhibiting characteristics of both liquid and solid. Particularly intriguing is a valence-bond SN, in which spins are quantum entangled to form a…
A reduction of polarization in ultra-thin ferroelectric films appears to be fundamental to ferroelectricity at the nanoscale. For the model system PbTiO3 on SrTiO3, we report observation of the polarization vs. thickness relation. Distinct…
We report neutron scattering measurements, which reveal spin-liquid polymorphism in a '11' iron chalcogenide superconductor, a poorly-metallic magnetic FeTe tuned towards superconductivity by substitution of a small amount of Tellurium with…
We report filling-fraction dependent dielectric spectroscopy measurements on the relaxation dynamics of the rod-like nematogen 7CB condensed in 13 nm silica nanochannels. In the film-condensed regime, a slow interface relaxation dominates…
Polar nematic liquid crystals are new classes of condensed-matter states where the inversion symmetry common to the traditional apolar nematics is broken. Establishing theoretical descriptions for the novel phase states is an urgent task.…
We report on the optical control of the recently observed electromechanical instability of ferroelectric liquid droplets exposed to the photovoltaic field of a lithium niobate ferroelectric crystal substrate. The ferroelectric liquid is a…
Combining our comprehensive investigations of polarization evolution, soft-mode by Raman scattering and microstructure by TEM, and the results reported in the literatures, we show that prototypical relaxor Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) is…
Liquid crystals formed of bent-core molecules are exotic materials that exhibit the twist-bend nematic phase. This arises when an energetic preference for nonzero local bend distortion is accommodated via twist in the texture, resulting in…
The twist-grain-boundary (TGB) phases, characterized by a periodic, helical arrangement of blocks made of polar smectic phases, SmAF and SmCF, have been discovered. They have been observed for rod-like molecules with a strong longitudinal…
In the review we briefly analyze the state-of-art in the theory of flexoelectric phenomena and analyze how significantly the flexoelectric coupling can change the polar order parameter distribution in different ferroics and liquid crystals.…
Molecular orientation fluctuations in ferroelectric smectic liquid crystals produce space charges, due to the divergence of the spontaneous polarization. These space charges interact with mobile ions, so that one must consider the coupled…
Ferroelectric domain walls are boundaries between regions with different polarization orientations in a ferroelectric material. Using first principles calculations, we characterize all different types of domain walls forming on…
Hard spherocylinders (cylinders of length $L$ and diameter $D$ capped at both ends with two hemispheres) provide a suitable model for investigating entropy-driven, mesophase formations in real colloidal fluids that are composed of rigid…
Relaxor ferroelectrics, which can exhibit exceptional electromechanical coupling are some of the most important functional materials with applications ranging from ultrasound imaging to actuators and sensors in microelectromechanical…
In soft ferroelectric crystals, the depolarization field can be reduced by periodic distortion of the polarization direction. In the polar nematic and tilted smectic phases, this process is energetically favorured , as it only requires…
We have carried out the powder x-ray diffraction and dielectric studies on multiferroic particulate composite xNi0.9Zn0.1Fe2O4/(1-x)PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 with x=0.15, 0.30, 0.45, 0.60, 0.75 and 0.90 to explore the structural and ferroelectric…
Ferroelectric ordering, the electroclinic effect and chiral smectic C (SmC*) - smectic A (SmA*) phase transitions in thin planar ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) cells are studied by means of linear electrooptic and second harmonic…
Properties of (BaTiO$_3$)$_1$/(BaZrO$_3$)$_n$ ferroelectric superlattices (SLs) with $n = {}$1--7 grown in the [001] direction are calculated from first principles within the density functional theory. It is revealed that the…