Matija Lovšin

Ferroelectric nematic fluids are promising materials for tunable nonlinear photonics, with applications ranging from second harmonic generation to sources of entangled photons. However, the few reported values of second‐order susceptibilities vary widely depending on the molecular architecture. Here, we systematically measure second‐order NLO susceptibilities of five different materials that exhibit the ferroelectric nematic phase, as well as the more recently discovered layered smectic A ferroelectric phase. The materials investigated include archetypal molecular architectures as well as mixtures showing room‐temperature ferroelectric phases. The measured values, which range from 0.3 to 20 pm V ⁻¹ , are here reasonably predicted by combining calculations of molecular‐level hyperpolarizabilities and a simple nematic potential, highlighting the opportunities of modelling‐assisted design for enhanced NLO ferroelectric fluids.

The recent discovery of ferroelectric nematic liquid crystalline phases marks a major breakthrough in soft matter research. An intermediate phase, often observed between the nonpolar and the ferroelectric nematic phase, shows a distinct antiferroelectric response to electric fields. However, its structure and formation mechanisms remain debated, with flexoelectric and electrostatics effects proposed as competing mechanisms. By controlling the magnitude of electrostatic forces through ion addition in two representative ferroelectric nematic materials, it is shown that the primary mechanism for the emergence of antiferroelectric order is the flexoelectric coupling between electric polarization and splay deformation of the nematic director. The addition of ions significantly expands the temperature range over which the antiferroelectric phase is observed, with this range increasing with increasing ion concentration. Polarizing optical microscopy studies and second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy reveal the splayed structure modulated in 2D, while SHG interferometry confirms its antiferroelectric character. The model previously used to describe pretransitional behavior is extended by incorporating the electrostatic contribution of ions. The model shows qualitative agreement with the experiments, accurately reproducing the phase diagram and temperature‐dependent evolution of the modulation period of the observed structure.

The recently discovered ferroelectric nematic liquids incorporate to the functional combination of fluidity, processability and anisotropic optical properties of nematic liquids, an astonishing range of physical properties derived from the phase polarity. Among them, the remarkably large values of second order optical susceptibility encourage to exploit these new materials for non-linear photonic applications. Here we show that photopatterning of the alignment layer can be used to structure polarization patterns. To do so, we take advantage of the flexoelectric effect and design splay structures that geometrically define the polarization direction. We demonstrate the creation of periodic polarization structures and the possibility of guiding polarization by embedding splay structures in uniform backgrounds. The demonstrated capabilities of polarization patterning, open a promising new route for the design of ferroelectric nematic based photonic structures and their exploitation.

A surface relief grating with a period of 30 µm is embossed onto the surface of magnetoactive elastomer (MAE) samples in the presence of a moderate magnetic field of about 180 mT. The grating, which is represented as a set of parallel stripes with two different amplitude reflectivity coefficients, is detected via diffraction of a laser beam in the reflection configuration. Due to the magnetic-field-induced plasticity effect, the grating persists on the MAE surface for at least 90 h if the magnetic field remains present. When the magnetic field is removed, the diffraction efficiency vanishes in a few minutes. The described effect is much more pronounced in MAE samples with larger content of iron filler (80 wt%) than in the samples with lower content of iron filler (70 wt%). A simple theoretical model is proposed to describe the observed dependence of the diffraction efficiency on the applied magnetic field. Possible applications of MAEs as magnetically reconfigurable diffractive optical elements are discussed. It is proposed that the described experimental method can be used as a convenient tool for investigations of the dynamics of magnetically induced plasticity of MAEs on the micrometer scale.