Physical properties of the first ferroelectric and antiferroelectric liquid crystal phases.

The first ferroelectric liquid crystalline phase (in 8SI(*) (delta S-(+)-(4-(2'-methylbutyl) phenyl-4'-n-octylbiphenyl- 4 carboxylate) is reported and its physical properties are discussed. The close connection between the phase sequences of 8SI(*) and its racemate are established. Both compounds show a number of smectic phases above the newly discovered ferroelectric phase and its analogue in the racemate. These phases (C,I and G) are tilted in the racemate and both tilted and chiral in 8SI(*). In the truly ferroelectric phase, X, the director of the molecules can be oriented in a bistable way in an electric field, a behavior fundamentally different from that in a chiral smectic phase.