Observation of a uniaxial ferroelectric smectic A phase

We report the observation of the smectic A(F), a liquid crystal phase of the ferroelectric nematic realm. The smectic A(F) is a phase of small polar, rod-shaped molecules that form two-dimensional fluid layers spaced by approximately the mean molecular length. The phase is uniaxial, with the molecular director, the local average long-axis orientation, normal to the layer planes, and ferroelectric, with a spontaneous electric polarization parallel to the director. Polarization measurements indicate almost complete polar ordering of the ∼10 Debye longitudinal molecular dipoles, and hysteretic polarization reversal with a coercive field ∼2 × 10(5) V/m is observed. The SmA(F) phase appears upon cooling in two binary mixtures of partially fluorinated mesogens: 2N/DIO, exhibiting a nematic (N)–smectic Z(A) (SmZ(A))–ferroelectric nematic (N(F))–SmA(F) phase sequence, and 7N/DIO, exhibiting an N–SmZ(A)–SmA(F) phase sequence. The latter presents an opportunity to study a transition between two smectic phases having orthogonal systems of layers.