Ferroelectric nematic liquids with conics.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36765061.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-36326-1 and PMC identifier 9918734.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Spontaneous electric polarization of solid ferroelectrics follows aligning directions of crystallographic axes. Domains of differently oriented polarization are separated by domain walls (DWs), which are predominantly flat and run along directions dictated by the bulk translational order and the sample surfaces. Here we explore DWs in a ferroelectric nematic (N<sub>F</sub>) liquid crystal, which is a fluid with polar long-range orientational order but no crystallographic axes nor facets. We demonstrate that DWs in the absence of bulk and surface aligning axes are shaped as conic sections. The conics bisect the angle between two neighboring polarization fields to avoid electric charges. The remarkable bisecting properties of conic sections, known for millennia, play a central role as intrinsic features of liquid ferroelectrics. The findings could be helpful in designing patterns of electric polarization and space charge.