- Bergquist, Leah;
- Zhang, Cuiyu;
- de Almeida, Roberta R Ribeiro;
- Pellegrene, Brittany;
- Salamonczyk, Miroslaw;
- Kim, Matthew;
- Hwang, Jung‐Im;
- Kim, Kyeong‐Jin;
- Lee, Joun‐Ho;
- Jákli, Antal;
- Hegmann, Torsten
We report on the synthesis and characterization of bent-core liquid crystal (LC) compounds and the preparation of mixtures that provide an optically isotropic antiferroelectric (OI-AFLC) liquid crystal display mode over a very wide temperature interval and well below room temperature. From the collection of compounds synthesized during this study, we recognized that several ternary mixtures displayed a modulated SmCaPA phase down to below -40 °C and up to about 100 °C on both heating and cooling, as well as optical tilt angles in the transformed state of approximately 45° (optically isotropic state). The materials were fully characterized and their liquid crystal as well as electro-optical properties analyzed by polarized optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, synchrotron X-ray diffraction, dielectric spectroscopy, and electro-optical tests.