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Science 23 June 2000:
Vol. 288. no. 5474, pp. 2146 - 2147
DOI: 10.1126/science.288.5474.2146
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Perspectives

LIQUID CRYSTALS:
New Banana Phases

Tom C. Lubensky

Liquid crystals-materials that flow like a fluid but are optically anisotropic like a crystal-exhibit large responses to modest external disturbances. In his Perspective, Lubensky discusses the advances reported in two papers in this issue, both of which involve liquid crystals made from V-shaped or bent-core molecules. Walba et al. report a synthetic strategy for producing a ferroelectric phase from achiral bent-core molecules. Pratibha et al. show that new liquid crystalline phases form when bent-core molecules are mixed with a particular class of rodlike molecules. These papers introduce new molecular designs that yield new liquid crystalline phases with controlled structure and properties.

The author is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, David Rittenhouse Laboratory, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6396, USA. E-mail: tom{at}dept.physics.upenn.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)