ABSTRACT
We have studied the polar structures in the binary mixtures of bent-core liquid crystals P-n-O-PIMB(n-2)*-(n-4)O showing the ferroelectric smectic- CAPF (Sm-CAPF) (n=8 and 10) and antiferroelectric Sm-CSPA (n=9) B2 phase. Although the polar structure of the one-to-one mixture is governed by the compound with longer end chains, it is much more complicated in the mixtures with slightly less fraction of compounds with longer end chains. Even if the mixtures show the antiferroelectric phase before field application, the ferroelectric domains remain once the field is applied and coexist with the antiferroelectric domains. The coexistence structure was modeled by comparing the microscope real image with that of second-harmonic generation. The fraction of the ferroelectric domains is larger at higher temperature region of the B2 phase and decreases with decreasing temperature. The stable phase structures were discussed based on the phenomenological theory. We suggest that the coupling energy of the layer chirality is higher than the energies of the orientation correlations of tilts and polarizations between adjacent layers.
ABSTRACT
Simple theoretical interpretation has been made on the previously reported odd-even behavior of the emergence of ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity in homologous series of bent-core mesogens with the same chiral end chains (S,S) ; compounds with even and odd carbon numbers (including oxygen) exhibit ferroelectric and antiferroelectric B2 phases, respectively. The odd-even behavior was confirmed in newly synthesized racemic compounds with chiral end chains of R and S forms (R,S) together with (R,R) and (S,S) forms. According to our theoretical interpretation, ferroelectricity should be more stable in (R,S) compounds than in (S,S) compounds. Actually, the transition temperature from the isotropic phase to the Sm-CP phase was higher and the temperature range of the B2 phase was broader in the (R,S) compound than in the (S,S) compound.
