Liquid crystalline materials

Abstract

During the development of liquid crystals there was an ongoing discussion if ferroelectricity could exist in LC materials. Until then, ferroelectricity only existed in solids with a specific crystal structure having no inversion symmetry center. Ferroelectricity was considered to be impossible in gases or liquids, but since liquid crystals have a regularity to some extent, the expression of a ferroelectric liquid in the liquid crystal was expected. In fact, there have been measurements of pulses of electric current in liquid crystals when applying the polarity inversion pulse voltage, which were similar to the currents observed in association with spontaneous polarization reversal of a ferroelectric to the liquid crystal, but this effect is not due to ferroelectricity. Meanwhile, the liquid crystal DOBAMBC showing the ferroelectric smectic C phase was reported by Meyer et al. in 1975 (J. De Phys. (Paris) 36:L-69, 1975).