Dielectric Properties of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals with Diversified Molecular Structure

Mesomorphic, thermodynamic, electro-optic and dielectric properties of three homologues of fluorosubstituted esters are described. Full chemical names of these compounds are as follows: (S)-(+)-4-(1-metyl-hepty-loksy)benzoate-(6-penta-fluoro-propano-ynloxyhex-1-oxy)-biphenyl-4-yl (in short 2F6BBiOC8), (S)-(+)-4-(1-metyl-hepty-loksy)benzoate-(6-nona-fluoro-pentano-yloxyhex-1-oxy)-biphenyl-4-yl (in short 4F6BBiOC8), (S)-(+)-4-(1-metyl-hepty-loksy)benzoate-(6-trideca-fluoro-heptano-yloxyhex-1-oxy)-biphenyl-4-yl (in short 6F6BBiOC8). The compounds exhibit ferroelectric smectic C* phase between crystalline and isotropic phase. Only one compound (6F6BBiOC8) shows antiferroelectric phase $(SmC_{A}^\ast)$ observed by dielectric spectroscopy, but the range of this phase is narrow of about 2°. All three compounds exhibit in the SmC* phase Goldstone mode and Maxwell-Wagner relaxation hidden in the conductivity contribution at low frequencies, whereas in the $SmC_{A}^\ast$ phase two anti-ferroelectric modes (AFM1) and (AFM2) contribute to the dielectric spectrum. The compounds were studied using differential scanning calorimetric, frequency domain dielectric spectroscopy, and reversal currents method to determine spontaneous polarization.