Polarisation-driven magneto-optical and nonlinear-optical behaviour of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic phase.

Zavvou, Evangelia; Klasen-Memmer, Melanie; Manabe, Atsutaka; Bremer, Matthias; Eremin, Alexey · Soft Matter · 2022

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Nematics with a broken polar symmetry are one of the fascinating recent discoveries in the field of soft matter. High spontaneous polarisation and the fluidity of the ferroelectric nematic <i>N</i><sub>F</sub> phase make such materials attractive for future applications and interesting for fundamental research. Here, we explore the polar and mechanical properties of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic and its behaviour in a magnetic field. We show that <i>N</i><sub>F</sub> is much less susceptible to the splay deformation than to the twist. The strong splay rigidity can be attributed to the electrostatic self-interaction of polarisation avoiding the polarisation splay.