1B05 Achiral Banana-shaped Liquid Crystal Compound Forming a Cholesteric Phase

Abstract

We synthesised new series of non-symmetric banana-shaped materials almost which were found to form the B phase as usually expected for the bent shape molecules. Interestingly one of them was found to exhibit a unique characteristic that was quite similar to a cholesteric property. We observed the cell thickness and temperature dependence of the transmitted light as well as the typical microscopic textures. These results indicate the existence of the spontaneous helical superstructure in an achiral system.