5 papers
Competing ferroelectric and smectic order: modulated structures through molecular design
Grant J. Strachan, Ewa Górecka, Jadwiga Szydłowska +1
We demonstrate that the balance between polar and positional order can be systematically tuned through molecular engineering, providing direct control over the emergence of polar a…
Competition between mirror symmetry breaking and translation symmetry breaking in ferroelectric liquid crystals with increasing lateral substitution
Grant J. Strachan, Ewa Górecka, Damian Pociecha
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, w…
Interplay of polar order and positional order in liquid crystals -- observation of re-entrant ferroelectric nematic phase
Grant Strachan, Shona Ramsay, Marijus Juodka +6
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 n…
Nematic and smectic phases with proper ferroelectric order
Grant J. Strachan, Ewa Górecka, Jadwiga Szydłowska +2
A material showing a sequence of three ferroelectric liquid crystalline phases below the paraelectric nematic phase has been synthesized and studied. The polar order of molecules a…
Temperature dependence of bend elastic constant in oblique helicoidal cholesterics
Olena S. Iadlovska, Greta Babakhanova, Georg H. Mehl +7
Elastic moduli of liquid crystals, known as Frank constants, are of quintessential importance for understanding fundamental properties of these materials and for the design of thei…