Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract
The main advances in the field of bulk ferroelectric liquid crystals since 1984 are reviewed. Recent experiments have shown that the molecular tilt and the in-plane spontaneous polarization are not strictly proportional to each other as assumed before. Microscopic experiments such as NMR and NQR have further allowed for a determination of the basic order parameters as a function of the nuclear position along the molecule without unwinding the chiral helix.