Flexoelectricity versus Electrostatics in Polar Nematic Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Polar nematic liquid crystals have two special features, compared with conventional nematic liquid crystals. First, because of flexoelectricity, the combination of polar order and splay reduces the free energy. Second, because of electrostatics, any splay generates a bound charge density, which increases the free energy. To assess the competition between these two effects, we develop a theory that combines flexoelectricity and electrostatics. The theory predicts a phase diagram that includes ferroelectric, antiferroelectric, and conventional nematic phases.

References in corpus (3)

• Chiral ground states of ferroelectric liquid crystals
• Ferroelectric nematic liquids with conics
• Q-tensor model of twist-bend and splay nematic phases

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Twist, splay, and uniform domains in ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals
• Double Splay Nematic Order in Confined Polar Fluids
• Ferri- and Ferro-Electric Switching in Spontaneously Chiral Polar Liquid Crystals
• Topological transition from a hopfion to a toron via flexoelectric self-polarization in chiral liquid crystals
• Spontaneous Cholesteric Phase in Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystals: Preference for Integer Number of Pitches
• Helix alignment, chevrons, and edge dislocations in twist-bend ferroelectric nematics
• Deformed states in paraelectric and ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals