Structural studies on different types of ferroelectric liquid crystalline substances

Structural studies of ferroelectric liquid crystalline substances of different molecular structure have been reviewed. The discussion of the results deals mainly with the structure of chiral liquid crystals forming the smectic mesophase with ferroelectric order, as the research on ferroelectric liquid crystals, due to their high potential for application in electro-optics and photonics, has recently become one of the most attractive fields. Based on data of polarizing optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction obtained for unoriented samples we have identified the type of the mesophases, the temperature of the phase transitions and outlined the phase diagrams. An analysis of the relation between the molecular conformation and different types of phase transitions has been performed. The layer spacing and the average intermolecular distances have been determined for all studied phases from the positions of the small and the large angle diffraction peaks, respectively.