Chirality and Macroscopic Polar Order in a Ferroelectric Smectic Liquid-Crystalline Phase Formed by Achiral Polyphilic Bent-Core Molecules This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie.

Abstract

In conventional fluids the molecular dipole moments of the individual molecules cancel out, which leads to a macroscopic apolar structure. Directed molecular design using microsegregation and tailoring the molecular shape of compounds such as 1, can lead to fluid layer structures with a macroscopic polar order.