Polar self-organization of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal molecules on atomically flat Au(111) surface

Understanding nanoscale mechanisms responsible for the recently discovered ferroelectric nematics can be helped by direct visualization of self-assembly of strongly polar molecules. Here we report on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of monomolecular layers of a ferroelectric nematic liqui...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-01
Main Authors: Marchenko, Alexandr A, Kapitanchuk, Oleksiy L, Yaroslava Yu Lopatina, Nazarenko, Kostiantyn G, Senenko, Anton I, Katsonis, Nathalie, Nazarenko, Vassili G, Lavrentovich, Oleg D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dipoles
Ferroelectric materials
Ferroelectricity
Gold
Liquid crystals
Nematic crystals
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Self-assembly
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Summary:Understanding nanoscale mechanisms responsible for the recently discovered ferroelectric nematics can be helped by direct visualization of self-assembly of strongly polar molecules. Here we report on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of monomolecular layers of a ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal on a reconstructed Au(111) surface. The monolayers are obtained by deposition from a solution at ambient conditions. The adsorbed ferroelectric nematic molecules self-assemble into regular rows with tilted orientation, resembling a layered structure of a smectic C. Remarkably, each molecular dipole in this architecture is oriented along the same direction giving rise to polar ferroelectric ordering.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2401.10048