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Science 29 August 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5637, pp. 1204 - 1211
DOI: 10.1126/science.1084956
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Research Articles

Polarization-Modulated Smectic Liquid Crystal Phases

D. A. Coleman,1 J. Fernsler,1 N. Chattham,1 M. Nakata,2 Y. Takanishi,2 E. Körblova,3 D. R. Link,1,2 R.-F. Shao,1 W. G. Jang,1 J. E. Maclennan,1 O. Mondainn-Monval,4,5 C. Boyer,4 W. Weissflog,6 G. Pelzl,6 L.-C. Chien,7 J. Zasadzinski,4 J. Watanabe,2 D. M. Walba,3 H. Takezoe,2 N. A. Clark1*

Any polar-ordered material with a spatially uniform polarization field is internally frustrated: The symmetry-required local preference for polarization is to be nonuniform, i.e., to be locally bouquet-like or "splayed." However, it is impossible to achieve splay of a preferred sign everywhere in space unless appropriate defects are introduced into the field. Typically, in materials like ferroelectric crystals or liquid crystals, such defects are not thermally stable, so that the local preference is globally frustrated and the polarization field remains uniform. Here, we report a class of fluid polar smectic liquid crystals in which local splay prevails in the form of periodic supermolecular-scale polarization modulation stripes coupled to layer undulation waves. The polar domains are locally chiral, and organized into patterns of alternating handedness and polarity. The fluid-layer undulations enable an extraordinary menagerie of filament and planar structures that identify such phases.

1 Department of Physics and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO80309 - 0390, USA. 2 Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. 3 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 -0215, USA. 4 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. 5 Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal-CNRS, Av. A. Schweitzer, 33 600 Pessac, France. 6 Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Martin-Luther-Universität D-06108 Halle, Muehlpforte 1, Germany. 7 Liquid Crystal Institute, Department of Chemical Physics, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: noel.clark{at}colorado.edu

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