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Nematics with a broken polar symmetry are one of the fascinating recent discoveries in the field of soft matter. High spontaneous polarisation and the fluidity of the ferroelectric nematic N phase make such materials attractive for future applications and interesting for fundamental research. Here, we explore the polar and mechanical properties of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic and its behaviour in a magnetic field. We show that F phase make such materials attractive for future applications and interesting for fundamental research. Here, we explore the polar and mechanical properties of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic and its behaviour in a magnetic field. We show that N F is much less susceptible to the splay deformation than to the twist. The strong splay rigidity can be attributed to the electrostatic self-interaction of polarisation avoiding the polarisation splay.

We report an unusually strong flow-induced birefringence in an optically isotropic cubic phase occurring below the isotropic chiral conglomerate phase formed by a low-molecular-weight polycatenar mesogen. The transition into the birefringent state occurs thresholdless and the induced birefringence is comparable with that observed in polymeric systems. We suggest that the flow-induced deformation of the cubic structure is responsible for the strong rheo-optical response.

The dynamics of magnetic nanoparticles in rotating magnetic fields is studied both experimentally and theoretically. The experimental investigation is focused on the conversion of the magnetic forces to a mechanical torque acting on a ferrofluid confined in a spherical cavity in a rotating magnetic field. Polydispersity usually present in diluted ferrofluids is shown to play a crucial role in the torque conversion. Important features observed experimentally are reproduced theoretically in studies on the dynamics of particles with uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in the presence of thermal noise. The phase lag between the rotating magnetic field and the induced rotating magnetization, as well as the corresponding torque which is transferred to the carrier fluid because of the mutual coupling between both, is analyzed as a function of the particle size. It is shown that for large particles the magnetic moment is locked to the anisotropy axis. On lowering the particle radius, Néel relaxation becomes increasingly important. Illustrative numerical calculations demonstrating this behavior are performed for magnetic parameters typical for iron oxide.

Droplet arrays in thin, freely suspended liquid-crystalline smectic A films can form two-dimensional (2D) colloids. The droplets interact repulsively, arranging locally in a more or less hexagonal arrangement with only short-range spatial and orientational correlations and local lattice cell parameters that depend on droplet size. In contrast to quasi-2D colloids described earlier, there is no 3D bulk liquid subphase that affects the hydrodynamics. Although the films are surrounded by air, the droplet dynamics are genuinely 2D, the mobility of each droplet in its six-neighbor cage being determined by the ratio of cage and droplet sizes, rather than by the droplet size as in quasi-2D colloids. These experimental observations are described well by Saffman's model of a diffusing particle in a finite 2D membrane. The experiments were performed in microgravity, on the International Space Station.

We investigate the structure and the magnetooptical response of isotropic and anisotropic fibrillous organoferrogels with mobile magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). We demonstrate that the presence of the gel network restricts the magnetooptical response of the ferrogel. Even though the ferrogel exhibits no magnetic hysteresis, an optical hysteresis has been found. This suggests that the magnetooptical response is primarily determined by the dynamics of self-assembly of the MNPs into shape-anisotropic agglomerates. Furthermore, we show that the optical anisotropy of the system can be fine-tuned by varying the concentration of the gelator and the MNPs, respectively. The optical response in structurally anisotropic gels becomes orientation-dependent, revealing an intricate interplay between the gel mesh and the MNPs.

This paper studies the potential of 3 newly synthesized low molecular weight gelling agents (2 of them with azo groups) with the semicarbazide group as a H-bonding motif to gel the smectic phase of a commercial chiral smectic C material. To detect gelation two methods were used: the stabilization of the director pattern, which measures the interaction of the physical gel network with the LC-director, and the suppression of the onset of electrohydrodynamic instabilities, which measures the increase of viscosity. Special emphasis was put on the influence of the photochemical - isomerization of the gelling agents on gelation.From the stabilization of the director pattern an elastic component can be seen by the memory effect (two different switching times). Photochemical - isomerization destroys this memory effect. The increase of the threshold field for the onset of electrohydrodynamic instabilities in free-standing films measures the increase of viscosity and the supression of flow. Both methods detect the same melting temperature of the gel and the same reduction of the gelling ability upon - isomerization. This proves that the gelling abilities of the new azo-containing gelling agents can be reversibly switched on and off by photoisomerization.