Polarisation-driven magneto-optical and nonlinear-optical behaviour of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic phase

Abstract

Nematics with a broken polar symmetry is one of the fascinating recent discoveries in the field of soft matter. High spontaneous polarisation and the fluidity of the ferroelectric nematic $N_{\mathrm{F}}$ phase make such materials attractive for future applications and interesting for fundamental research. Here we explore the polar and mechanical properties of a room-temperature ferroelectric nematic and its behaviour in a magnetic field. We show that $N_{\mathrm{F}}$ is much less susceptible to the splay deformation than to the twist. The strong splay rigidity can be attributed to the electrostatic self-interaction of the polarisation avoiding the polarisation splay.