Polarization patterning in ferroelectric nematic liquids via flexoelectric coupling

Abstract

The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquids incorporate to the functional combination of fluidity, processability and anisotropic optical properties of nematic liquids, an astonishing range of physical properties derived from the phase polarity. Among them, the remarkably large values of second order optical susceptibility encourage to exploit these new materials for non-linear photonic applications. Here we show that photopatterning of the alignment layer can be used to structure polarization patterns. To do so, we take advantage of the flexoelectric effect and design splay structures that geometrically define the polarization direction. We demonstrate the creation of periodic polarization structures and the possibility of guiding polarization by embedding splay structures in uniform backgrounds. The demonstrated capabilities of polarization patterning, open a promising new route for the design of ferroelectric nematic based photonic structures and their exploitation.

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Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Sebastián, N Lovšin, M Berteloot, B Osterman, N Petelin, A Mandle, RJ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9816-9661 Aya, S Huang, M Drevenšek-Olenik, I Neyts, K Mertelj, A
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Dates:	Published: 25 May 2023 Published (online): 25 May 2023 Accepted: 11 May 2023
Institution:	The University of Leeds
Academic Units:	The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds)
Funding Information:	Funder Grant number MRC (Medical Research Council) MR/W006391/1
Depositing User:	Symplectic Publications
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2023 10:51
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2023 18:29
Status:	Published
Publisher:	Nature Research
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41467-023-38749-2
Related URLs:	Author
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:199665

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Polarization patterning in ferroelectric nematic liquids via flexoelectric coupling

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