| Recently compounds synthesized by Tschierske et al. [1] based on alkyl substituted 4-cyanoresorcinol 1,3 bisbenzoates with terephthlate based rod-like wings show a series of fascinating stable orthogonal smectic phases such as SmAPR, SmAPA and SmAPAX. In the latter, X is for an unknown polar antiferroelectric orthogonal smectic phase. In the seminar, I will discuss the electric field induced fascinating properties such as the optical biaxiality in some of these phases and show how the cells, incorporating bent-core materials in such phases, can be exploited for display and photonic devices. The nature of some of these phases will be clarified.
[1] C. Keith, M. Prehm, Y. P. Panarin, J. K. Vij, and C. Tschierske, Chem. Commun 46, 2010, 3702.
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