Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Fluid superscreening and polarization following in confined ferroelectric nematics

Nature Physics volume 19, pages 1658–1666 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic (NF) liquid-crystal phase exhibits a spontaneous polarization field that is both orientationally fluid like a liquid crystal and large in magnitude like a solid ferroelectric. This combination imparts this phase with a unique electrostatic phenomenology and response to applied fields. Here we probe this phase by applying a small electric field to ferroelectric nematics confined in microchannels that connect electrodes through straight and curved paths and find that the NF phase smoothly orders with its polarization following the channels despite their winding paths. This implies a corresponding behaviour of the electric field. On inversion of the electric field, the polar order undergoes a multistage switching process dominated by electrostatic interactions. We also find multistage polarization switching dynamics in the numerical simulations of a quasi-two-dimensional continuum model of channel-confined NF liquid crystals, enabling the exploration of their internal structural and electrical self-organization. This indicates that polarization alignment and electric-field guiding are direct consequences of fluid superscreening—the prompt elimination of electric-field components normal to the channel walls by polarization reorientation. This response mimics the behaviour expected for ultrahigh-permittivity dielectrics, but with patterns of charge accumulation and local ordering unique to fluid ferroelectrics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Ferroelectric nematic ordering in microchannels.
Fig. 2: Schematic of the fluid superscreening in a channel.
Fig. 3: Polarization inversion in microchannels.
Fig. 4: Simulated time evolution of polarization P, total (bound plus free) charge density ρ = σP + ρP + ρf and electric field E, following sign reversal of the potential on the electrodes (at t = 0 = t0).

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The custom code used to generate the results reported in this manuscript is available from M.A.G. upon request.

References

  1. Weiss, P. L’hypothèse du champ moléculaire et la propriété ferromagnétique. J. Phys. Theor. Appl. 6, 661–690 (1907).

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Debye, P. Einige resultate einer kinetischen theorie der isolatoren. Phys. Z. 13, 97–100 (1912).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Born, M. Über anisotrope flüssigkeiten. Versuch einer theorie der flüssigen kristalle und des elektrischen kerr-effekts in flüssigkeitenn. Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad Wiss. 30, 614–650 (1916).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Mandle, R. J., Cowling, S. J. & Goodby, J. W. A nematic to nematic transformation exhibited by a rod-like liquid crystal. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 19, 11429–11435 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Nishikawa, H. et al. A fluid liquid-crystal material with highly polar order. Adv. Mater. 29, 1702354 (2017).

  6. Chen, X. et al. First-principles experimental demonstration of ferroelectricity in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal: polar domains and striking electro-optics. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 14021–14031 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lavrentovich, O. Ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal, a century in waiting. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 14629–14631 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mertelj, A. et al. Splay nematic phase. Phys. Rev. X 8, 041025 (2018).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Chen, X. et al. Polar in-plane surface orientation of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal: polar monodomains and twisted state electro-optics. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2104092118 (2021).

  10. Sebastián, N., Mandle, R. J., Petelin, A., Eremin, A. & Mertelj, A. Electrooptics of mm-scale polar domains in the ferroelectric nematic phase. Liq. Cryst. 48, 2055–2071 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Feng, C. et al. Electrically tunable reflection color of chiral ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals. Adv. Opt. Mater. 9, 2101230 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Barboza, R. et al. Explosive electrostatic instability of ferroelectric liquid droplets on ferroelectric solid surfaces. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2207858119 (2022).

  13. Sebastián, N., Čopič, M. & Mertelj, A. Ferroelectric nematic liquid-crystalline phases. Phys. Rev. E 106, 14629–14631 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Marni, S., Nava, G., Barboza, R., Bellini, T. G. & Lucchetti, L. Walking ferroelectric liquid droplets with light. Adv. Mater. 35, 2212067 (2023).

  15. Mandle, R. J., Cowling, S. J. & Goodby, J. W. Rational design of rod-like liquid crystals exhibiting two nematic phases. Chem. Eur. J. 23, 14554–14562 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Li, J. et al. Development of ferroelectric nematic fluids with giant-ϵ dielectricity and nonlinear optical properties. Sci. Adv. 7, 5047–5068 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Marcinkevičius, A. et al. Femtosecond laser-assisted three-dimensional microfabrication in silica. Opt. Lett. 26, 277–279 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Osellame, R., Hoekstra, H. J., Cerullo, G. & Pollnau, M. Femtosecond laser microstructuring: an enabling tool for optofluidic lab-on-chips. Laser Photonics Rev. 5, 442–463 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Caimi, F. et al. Surface alignment of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals. Soft Matter 17, 8130–8139 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Zhuang, Z., Maclennan, J. E. & Clark, N. A. Device applications of ferroelectric liquid crystals: importance of polarization charge interactions. Proc. SPIE 29, 110–114 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Clark, N. A., Coleman, D. & Maclennan, J. E. Electrostatics and the electro-optic behaviour of chiral smectics C: ‘block’ polarization screening of applied voltage and ‘V-shaped’ switching. Liq. Cryst. 27, 985–990 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Shen, Y. et al. Effective conductivity due to continuous polarization reorientation in fluid ferroelectrics. Phys. Rev. E 84, 020701 (2011).

  23. Coleman, D. et al. Control of molecular orientation in electrostatically stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 175505 (2003).

  24. LoTurco, S., Osellame, R., Ramponi, R. & Vishnubhatla, K. C. Hybrid chemical etching of femtosecond laser irradiated structures for engineered microfluidic devices. J. Micromech. Microeng. 23, 085002 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Sala, F., Paié, P., Martínez Vázquez, R., Osellame, R. & Bragheri, F. Effects of thermal annealing on femtosecond laser micromachined glass surfaces. Micromachines 12, 180 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

F.C., G.N., S.F. and T.B. acknowledge support from MIUR-PRIN (2017Z55KCW). X.C., N.A.C. and M.A.G. acknowledge support for publication of this work from NSF Condensed Matter Physics grants (DMR 1710711 and DMR 2005170).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milano, Milano, Italy

    Federico Caimi, Giovanni Nava, Susanna Fuschetto & Tommaso Bellini

  2. SIMAU Department, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Liana Lucchetti

  3. Dipartimento di Fisica, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

    Petra Paiè

  4. Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (IFN-CNR), Milano, Italy

    Petra Paiè & Roberto Osellame

  5. Department of Physics and Soft Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Xi Chen, Noel A. Clark & Matthew A. Glaser

Authors
  1. Federico Caimi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Giovanni Nava
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Susanna Fuschetto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Liana Lucchetti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Petra Paiè
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Roberto Osellame
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Xi Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Noel A. Clark
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Matthew A. Glaser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Tommaso Bellini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

F.C., L.L., M.A.G. and T.B. conceived the experiment. F.C., G.N., R.O. and T.B. designed the experiment. F.C., S.F., P.P. and X.C. performed the experiment. M.A.G. designed and performed the simulation. F.C., S.F., G.N., M.A.G. and T.B. analysed the data. F.C., N.A.C., M.A.G. and T.B. interpreted the results. F.C., L.L., P.P., N.A.C., M.A.G. and T.B. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Matthew A. Glaser or Tommaso Bellini.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Physics thanks Alenka Mertelj and Satoshi Aya for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–35 and discussion.

Supplementary Video 1

Transmission optical microscopy video of the continuous rotation of a Z-shaped channel between crossed polarizers with a constant voltage ΔVpp = 10 V.

Supplementary Video 2

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of a Z-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 1 V (no offset) of frequency 100 mHz.

Supplementary Video 3

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of a Z-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 2 V (no offset) of frequency 100 mHz.

Supplementary Video 4

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of a Z-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 5 V (no offset) of frequency 200 mHz.

Supplementary Video 5

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of an S-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 5 V (no offset) of frequency 150 mHz.

Supplementary Video 6

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of an L-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 5 V (no offset) of frequency 100 mHz.

Supplementary Video 7

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of an I-shaped channel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 5 V (no offset) of frequency 200 mHz.

Supplementary Video 8

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of a couple of I-shaped microchannels with designed bottlenecks with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 4 V (no offset) of frequency 150 mHz.

Supplementary Video 9

Transmission optical microscopy between crossed polarizers of a bowtie-shaped microchannel with a square-wave potential ΔVpp = 5 V (no offset) of frequency 100 mHz.

Supplementary Video 10

Simulated switching dynamics of the smooth S-shaped channel after voltage reversal, showing total (bound plus free) charge density (top left), polar director (top right), electric field (bottom left) and a superposition of the polar director and electric field (bottom right). For clarity, the polar director and electric field are shown only at a subset of grid points (1 in 196). The total duration of the simulation is 500 μs, and the colour scales for charge and electric field are the same as in Supplementary Figs. 8–21.

Supplementary Video 11

Simulated switching dynamics of the rough S-shaped channel after voltage reversal, showing total (bound plus free) charge density (top left), polar director (top right), electric field (bottom left) and a superposition of polar director and electric field (bottom right). For clarity, the polar director and electric field are shown only at a subset of grid points (1 in 196). The total duration of the simulation is 500 µs, and the colour scales for charge and electric field are the same as in Supplementary Figs. 8–21.

Supplementary Video 12

Expanded view of the simulated switching dynamics in the bottom-right bend of the rough S-shaped channel after voltage reversal, showing total (bound plus free) charge density (top left), polar director (top right), electric field (bottom left) and a superposition of charge density and electric field (bottom right). The total duration of the simulation is 500 μs, and the colour scales for charge and electric field are the same as in Supplementary Figs. 8–21.

Supplementary Video 13

Simulated switching dynamics of the rough L-shaped channel after voltage reversal, showing total (bound plus free) charge density (top left), polar director (top right), electric field (bottom left) and a superposition of polar director and electric field (bottom right). For clarity, the polar director and electric field are shown only at a subset of grid points (1 in 196). The total duration of the simulation is 500 μs, and the colour scales for charge and electric field are the same as in Supplementary Figs. 8–21.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 3 and Fig. 4

Source data for Fig. 3. and Fig. 4

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Caimi, F., Nava, G., Fuschetto, S. et al. Fluid superscreening and polarization following in confined ferroelectric nematics. Nat. Phys. 19, 1658–1666 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02150-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-023-02150-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing