Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

The idea either to reveal or to construct a liquid ferroelectric was never abandoned by researchers since the discovery of ferroelectricity in solid crystals at the beginning of this century. In principle, nature does not forbid the existence of ferroelectric liquids. For instance, a centro-symmetric liquid can change its point symmetry from the K _h , to C_∝v , group with the formation of a uniform ferroelectric phase. A liquid without the inversion center can have a phase transition K → C_∝, into the inhomogeneous, helical structure. In both these hypothetical cases the spontaneous polarization, P _s , would play the role of the true order parameter. However, such liquid ferroelectric phases (proper ferroelectrics) have not been discovered as yet.