1A01 Four mechanisms cooperatively stabilizing TLAF (ThresholdLess AntiFerroelectricity)

Abstract

In the MC881-MC452 binary mixture system, the near-IR Bragg reflection peak was observed in a wide temperature range from 80℃ down to RT or lower for a narrow concentration region between 54.99 and 57.50 wt.%; the phase responsible for this near-IR Bragg reflection peak was identified as disordered SmC^*-like phase with q_T =1/2, which has the TLAF property in the bulk. We have explained how the TLAF phase is stabilized by four intriguing mechanisms: (1) SRILIs producing the frustration between SmC^* and SmC^*_A; (2) Thermal equilibrium between ferroelectric and antiferroelectric orderings; (3) Emelyanenko-Osipov LRILIs stabilizing the q_T=1/2 state in a wide temperature range; and (4) A ferroelectric hexatic phase emerging on the low temperature side of SmC^*_A.