Speaker
Description
Liquid crystals (LCs) are a mesophase that combines the properties of liquids and solids. They are commonly found in nature and are a basis of liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology. The two most recent generations LC observed in the $21^{st}$ century, including phases such as twist-bend ($N_{TB}$), splay ($N_S$), and ferroelectric ($N_F$) nematics, are the subject of ongoing scientific debate. While new classes of molecules forming them are synthesized by the experimentalists, the theorists discuss the molecular factors that stabilize them. For example, it has been shown that purely entropic interactions are enough to promote twist-bend modulation in bent-core systems, which was further confirmed by different computational studies. On the other hand, the origin of $N_S$ and $N_F$ is still being discussed. The two most important factors appear to be a conical shape and a large dipole moment of a molecule. Here, using hard-core- particle Monte Carlo simulations, we assess the possibility of obtaining $N_S$ and $N_F$ phases without the help of dipolar interactions by studying various shapes of molecules. Moreover, we show several phases of non-standard symmetries, which have not been observed before.
