Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Ferroelectric order in liquid crystal phases of dipolar disk-like ellipsoids

Tushar Kanti Bose

Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata

The realization of fluid phases with spontaneous overall polarization is considered as a
subject of both fundamental and technological interests. Recently, a system of dipolar disk-
like ellipsoids has been found to exhibit long-searched ferroelectric liquid crystal phases with
strong polarization. The dipolar interaction plays the major role in generating the ferro-
electric order. The model system of interest consists of attractive-repulsive oblate ellipsoids
embedded with two parallel point dipoles positioned symmetrically on the equatorial plane
of the ellipsoids. Here, we demonstrate the influence of the particle shape and the nature
of the interactions upon the phase behavior of the system using results of extensive N-P-T
Monte Carlo investigations. The results provide a detailed structure-property relationship of
achieving some long-searched liquid crystalline phases.