Flexoelectric effect in a bent-core mesogen

Abstract

The flexoelectricity in a bent-core liquid crystal was evaluated quantitatively using two independent electrooptic methods. The absolute value of the bend flexoelectric coefficient e ₃ was measured to be about 15.8 pC m⁻¹. Our results revealed that there is little difference between the flexoelectricity of bent-core mesogens and that of conventional calamitic mesogens, i.e. in the same pC m⁻¹ order. The principles of the methods used are reviewed in detail.

Keywords:

• flexoelectric effect
• bent-core liquid crystal
• converse flexoelectric effect
• flexoelectric instability

Acknowledgements

This work is partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) (16105003) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science, Sports and Technology of Japan and the G-COE programme in the Tokyo Institute of Technology.