These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in polar fluid-heliconical ferroelectric nematic phase.
    Author: Karcz J, Herman J, Rychłowicz N, Kula P, Górecka E, Szydlowska J, Majewski PW, Pociecha D.
    Journal: Science; 2024 Jun 07; 384(6700):1096-1099. PubMed ID: 38843325.
    Abstract:
    Spontaneous mirror symmetry breaking by formation of chiral structures from achiral building blocks and emergent polar order are phenomena rarely observed in fluids. Separately, they have both been found in certain nematic liquid crystalline phases; however, they have never been observed simultaneously. Here, we report a heliconical arrangement of achiral molecules in the ferroelectric nematic phase. The phase is thus spontaneously both polar and chiral. Notably, the pitch of the heliconical structure is comparable to the wavelength of visible light, giving selective reflection controllable by temperature or application of a weak electric field. Despite bearing resemblance to the heliconical twist-bend nematic phase, this chiral ferroelectric nematic phase arises from electrical interactions that induce a noncollinear orientation of electric dipoles.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]