The smectic ZA phase: Antiferroelectric smectic order as a prelude to the ferroelectric nematic

Chen, Xi; Martinez, Vikina; Korblova, Eva; Freychet, Guillaume; Zhernenkov, Mikhail; Glaser, Matthew A.; Wang, Cheng; Zhu, Chenhui; Radzihovsky, Leo; Maclennan, Joseph E.; Walba, David M.; Clark, Noel A.

doi:10.1073/pnas.2217150120

The smectic Z_A phase: Antiferroelectric smectic order as a prelude to the ferroelectric nematic

Journal Article · Tue Feb 14 23:00:00 EST 2023 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2217150120· OSTI ID:2000497

^[1]; Martinez, Vikina ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[1]; Wang, Cheng ^[3]; ^[3]; Radzihovsky, Leo ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Clark, Noel A. ^[1]

University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

We have structurally characterized the liquid crystal (LC) phase that can appear as an intermediate state when a dielectric nematic, having polar disorder of its molecular dipoles, transitions to the almost perfectly polar-ordered ferroelectric nematic. This intermediate phase, which fills a 100-y-old void in the taxonomy of smectic LCs and which we term the “smectic Z_A,” is antiferroelectric, with the nematic director and polarization oriented parallel to smectic layer planes, and the polarization alternating in sign from layer to layer with a 180 Å period. A Landau free energy, originally derived from the Ising model of ferromagnetic ordering of spins in the presence of dipole–dipole interactions, and applied to model incommensurate antiferroelectricity in crystals, describes the key features of the nematic–SmZ_A–ferroelectric nematic phase sequence.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2000497

Journal Information:: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 120; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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The smectic ZA phase: Antiferroelectric smectic order as a prelude to the ferroelectric nematic

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The smectic Z_A phase: Antiferroelectric smectic order as a prelude to the ferroelectric nematic