Sub-millisecond Switching and Ferroelectric-like Polarization in a Bent Shaped Liquid Crystal Exhibiting Nematic and Twist-bend Nematic Phases

A fast switching liquid crystal (LC), especially in its nematic (N) phase, can significantly improve the performance and properties of present-day electro-optic devices and displays. We investigated the polar nature and switching behaviour of a bent shaped liquid crystal (LC) CB7CB at different temperatures, subjected to applied voltages of varying amplitude and frequency. A threshold-dependent polarization current response, with large spontaneous polarization, was observed in the nematic (N) and in the twist-bend nematic (Ntb) phases exhibited by the LC compound. The current response was identified as ferroelectric-like in nature, and the corresponding switching time was found to lie in the range of ~ 500 {\mu}s in the N phase, which is fast compared to the usual nematic switching time (in the range of milliseconds). The nematic switching is bi-stable in nature and the nematic polarization arises from the collective reorientation of cybotactic clusters on field-reversal. At larger voltages, the twist-bend helices were observed to unwind which can be considered as the main reason for the polar response in Ntb phase. The fast, bi-stable switching nature exhibited by the compound may become useful for application in next-generation of electro-optic devices.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figures, 1 tabl

Quasi-one dimensional electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power studies on a discotic liquid crystal

We have studied the electrical conductivity of well aligned samples of hexahexylthiotriphenylene (HHTT) in the pure as well as doped states. The dopant used was a small concentration (0.62 mole %) of the electron acceptor trinitrofluorenone (TNF). In the columnar phases, doping causes the AC(1 kHz) conductivity along the columnar axis (σ ||) to increase by a factor of 107 or more relative to that in undoped samples; σ || attains a value of 10-2S/m, which was the maximum measurable limit of our experimental set up. On the other hand, in the isotropic phase doping makes hardly any difference to the conductivity. The frequency dependence of the conductivity has been investigated. The DC conductivity of doped samples exhibits an enormous anisotropy, σ ||/σ⊥ ≥ 1010, which is 7 orders higher than that reported for any liquid crystalline system, and, to our knowledge, the largest observed in an organic conductor. We also report the first thermoelectric power studies on these 'molecular wires'. The sign of the thermoelectric power is in conformity with the expected nature of the charge carriers, namely, holes

A first low-molar-mass, monodispersive, bent-rod dimer exhibiting biaxial nematic and smectic A phases

A "peelable banana" is formed when a bent-core molecule is linked to a rodlike mesogen through a flexible aliphatic spacer. This is an appropriate description of this novel low-molar-mass organic system, which displays a transition from a biaxial nematic (Nb) phase to a biaxial smectic A phase. The illustration gives a schematic representation of the dimeric molecules in the Nb phase as well as the corresponding textural and conoscopic patterns obtained