Polar Order in a Fluid Like Ferroelectric with a Tilted Lamellar Structure – Observation of a Polar Smectic C (SmCP) Phase

The spontaneous polarisation of the SmCP phase is over two orders of magnitude larger than that found in conventional ferroelectric SmC phase of chiral materials used in some LCD devices. Fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations faithfully and spontaneously reproduce the proposed structure and associated bulk properties; comparison of experimental and simulated X-ray scattering patterns shows excellent agreement. The materials disclosed here have significantly smaller dipole moments than typical polar liquid crystals such as RM734 which suggests the role of molecular electrical polarity in generating polar order is perhaps overstated, a view supported by consideration of other molecular systems.