We study the microscopic basis of bistable switching of a confined liquid crystal via Monte Carlo simulations of hard pear-shaped particles. Using both dielectric and dipolar field couplings to this intrinsically flexoelectric fluid, it is shown that pulsed fields of opposing polarity can be used to switch between the vertical and hybrid aligned states. Further, it is shown that the field-susce...

The aim of this paper is to study the electro-mechanical coupling responses functionally graded (FG) piezoelectric cantilever nanobeam under concentrated load, and material properties follow an exponential distribution in thickness direction. constitutive equations are derived from electric Gibbs free energy density function. governing boundary conditions Euler–Bernoulli FG beam can be obtained...

The effects of flexoelectricity on thermo-electro-mechanical behavior of a functionally graded electro-piezo-flexoelectric nano-plate are investigated in this paper using flexoelectric modified and the Kirchhoff classic theories. Moreover, using the variation method and the principle of minimum potential energy for the first time, the coupled governing nonlinear differential equations of the na...

Understanding the elastic response on the nanoscale phase boundaries of multiferroics is an essential issue in order to explain their exotic behaviour. Mixed-phase BiFeO3 films, epitaxially grown on LaAlO3 (001) substrates, have been investigated by means of scanning probe microscopy to characterize the elastic and piezoelectric responses in the mixed-phase region of rhombohedral-like monoclini...

Cells use polar molecules in the membrane to sense changes in the transmembrane potential. The opening of voltage-gated ion channels and membrane bending due to the inverse flexoelectric effect are two examples of such electromechanical coupling. We have looked for membrane motions in an electric field using atomic (or scanning) force microscopy (AFM) with the intent of studying voltage-depende...

Submillisecond response times and low operation voltage are critical to next generation liquid crystal display and photonic devices. In this paper, we review the recent progress of three fastresponse short-pitch cholesteric liquid crystal modes: blue phase (BP), uniform standing helix (USH), and uniform lying helix (ULH). This review starts with a brief introduction of device structures and wor...

In this Rapid Communication we show that the interplay between the deformation geometric-nonlinearity and distributions of external charges and dipoles lead to the renormalization of the membrane's native flexoelectric response. Our work provides a framework for a mesoscopic interpretation of flexoelectricity and if necessary, artificially "design" tailored flexoelectricity in membranes. Compar...