Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in polar fluid-heliconical ferroelectric nematic phase.

Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking by formation of chiral structures from achiral building blocks and emergent polar order are phenomena rarely observed in fluids. Separately, they have both been found in certain nematic liquid crystalline phases; however, they have never been observed simultaneously. Here, we report a heliconical arrangement of achiral molecules in the ferroelectric nematic phase.

Molecular Design of Sexiphenyl-Based Liquid Crystals: Towards Temperature-Stable, Nematic Phases with Enhanced Optical Properties.

This research introduces a novel liquid crystal molecular design approach based on the para-sexiphenyl (6P) structure. Six new liquid crystalline materials were synthesized, incorporating an alkyl terminal and lateral substitutions of the sexiphenyl core to achieve temperature-stable and broad nematic phases. The synthetic pathway involved cross-coupling, resulting in derivatives with strong nematogenic characteristics.

Enantiotropic ferroelectric nematic phase in a single compound.

The ferroelectric nematic phase became the centre of interest of scientists because of its unique physical properties. The uniqueness of this particular phase results in its monotropic character in all known N materials. Here we present the very first example of a compound with an enantiotropic ferroelectric nematic phase.