Pre-submission Thesis Presentation

Bent-core liquid crystals have attracted significant attention owing to their unique ability to exhibit layer polarization and macroscopic chirality despite being composed of achiral bananashaped molecules. The inherent ability to exhibit spontaneous polarization makes them promising candidates for fast-switching devices. Moreover, the interplay between polarity and chirality gives rise to a wide range of liquid crystalline phases, which are of fundamental interest. This thesis deals with experimental investigations on some liquid crystalline compounds exhibiting distinct phase behaviour. Various experimental techniques, such as xray diffraction (XRD), polarising optical microscopy (POM), cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM), dielectric and electro-optic studies, among others, are used to probe the structure of different phases. I shall discuss leaning-induced layer undulations, de Vries Smectic phase, glassy dynamics, polarization-modulated smectic phase, and unusual nucleation-growth phenomena found in the studied compounds. We also proposed model structures of the observed liquid crystalline phases, which account for the experimental observations.