Liquid Crystals: A Fluid Liquid-Crystal Material with Highly Polar Order (Adv. Mater. 43/2017)

A calamitic-liquid-crystal compound with 1,3-dioxane and fluorinated aryl units exhibits a highly polar and fluid mesophase (MP phase) in which anomalously large dielectric permittivity (>10 000), ferroelectric-like polarization switching, and second-harmonic generation are observed by Hiroya Nishikawa, Hirotsugu Kikuchi, and co-workers in article number 1702354. The experimental data clearly shows that a unidirectional ferroelectric-like polar order is generated along the director, although there is no layer structure.

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