Renfan Shao

TL;DR: A smectic liquid-crystal phase made from achiral molecules with bent cores was found to have fluid layers that exhibit two spontaneous symmetry-breaking instabilities: polar molecular orientational ordering about the layer normal and molecular tilt.

TL;DR: The design and synthesis of a ferroelectric liquid crystal composed of racemic molecules and shows the thermodynamically stable structure to be a uniformly tilted smectic bow-phase (banana phase), with all layer pairs homochiral and ferroElectric (SmCSPF).

TL;DR: The chiral, heliconical (twist-bend) nematic ground state is reported in an achiral, rigid, bent-core mesogen (UD68) and exhibits nanoscale, periodic modulation with no associated modulation of the electron density.

TL;DR: The experimental determination of the structure and response to applied electric field of the lower-temperature nematic phase of the previously reported calamitic compound 4-[(4-nitrophenoxy)carbonyl]phenyl2,4-dimethoxybenzoate and results indicate a significant potential for transformative, new nematic physics, chemistry, and applications based on the enhanced understanding, development, and exploitation of molecular electrostatic interaction.

TL;DR: The SmAPF, the smectic of fluid polar orthorhombic layers that order into a three-dimensional ferroelectric state, is reported, the highest-symmetry layered ferro electric material found to date and the highest to date.