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The first demonstration of converse piezoelectricity in 3D fluids is presented by measuring a linear electromechanical effect in ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals. The observed piezoelectric coupling constant below 6 kHz electric field is larger than 1 nC/N, comparable to, or better than, values for the strongest solid piezoelectric materials. Symmetry considerations indicate that the alignment of the ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal in the experimental study is not optimized, so the observed signal is likely only a fraction of the theoretically achievable signal. Understanding the electromechanical response of ferroelectric nematics will enable mechanical energy harvesting and open up a new avenue for developing fluid actuators, micro positioners, and electrically tunable optical lenses.

 

Although its mesomorphic properties have been studied for many years, only recently has the molecule of life begun to reveal the true range of its rich liquid crystalline behavior. End-to-end interactions between concentrated, ultrashort DNA duplexes—driving the self-assembly of aggregates that organize into liquid crystal phases—and the incorporation of flexible single-stranded “gaps” in otherwise fully paired duplexes—producing clear evidence of an elementary lamellar (smectic-A) phase in DNA solutions—are two exciting developments that have opened avenues for discovery. Here, we report on a wider investigation of the nature and temperature dependence of smectic ordering in concentrated solutions of various “gapped” DNA (GDNA) constructs. We examine symmetric GDNA constructs consisting of two 48-base pair duplex segments bridged by a single-stranded sequence of 2 to 20 thymine bases. Two distinct smectic layer structures are observed for DNA concentration in the range$\sim 230\text{to}\sim 280$mg/mL. One exhibits an interlayer periodicity comparable with two-duplex lengths (“bilayer” structure), and the other has a period similar to a single-duplex length (“monolayer” structure). The bilayer structure is observed for gap length ≳10 bases and melts into the cholesteric phase at a temperature between 30 °C and 35 °C. The monolayer structure predominates for gap length ≲10 bases and persists to$>\mathrm{40}\hspace{0.17em}°$C. We discuss models for the two layer structures and mechanisms for their stability. We also report results for asymmetric gapped constructs and for constructs with terminal overhangs, which further support the model layer structures.

 

The effect of the molecular chirality of chiral additives on the nanostructure of the twist-bend nematic (N TB ) liquid crystal phase with ambidextrous chirality and nanoscale pitch due to spontaneous symmetry breaking is studied. It is found that the ambidextrous nanoscale pitch of the N TB phase increases by 50% due to 3% chiral additive, and the chiral transfer among the biphenyl groups disappears in the N TB * phase. Most significantly, a twist-grain boundary (TGB) type phase is found at c > 1.5 wt% chiral additive concentrations below the usual N* phase and above the non-CD active N TB * phase. In such a TGB type phase, the adjacent blocks of pseudo-layers of the nanoscale pitch rotate across the grain boundaries. 

The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic (N_F) liquid crystals (LCs) with over 0.04 C m⁻²ferroelectric polarization and 10⁴relative dielectric constants, coupled with sub‐millisecond switching, offer potential applications in high‐power super capacitors and low voltage driven fast electro‐optical devices. This paper presents electrical, optical, and electro‐optical studies of a ferroelectric nematic LC material doped with commercially available chiral dopants. While theN_Fphase of the undoped LC is only monotropic, the chiralN_Fphase is enantiotropic, indicating a chirality induced stabilization of the polar nematic order. Compared to undopedN_Fmaterial, a remarkable improvement of the electro‐optical switching time is demonstrated in the chiral doped materials. The color of the chiral mixtures that exhibit a selective reflection of visible light in the chiralN_Fphase, can be reversibly tuned by 0.02–0.1 V µm⁻¹ in‐plane electric fields, which are much smaller than typically required in full‐color cholesteric LC displays and do not require complicated driving scheme. The fast switchable reflection color at low fields has potential applications for LC displays without backlight, smart windows, shutters, and e‐papers.