We discuss theoretically the possibility of a spontaneous nematic splay phase for polar nematogens. This novel liquid crystal phase is similar to the cholesteric phase for chiral nematogens (spontaneous twist), since it is spatially inhomogeneous and breaks translational symmetry, and to the cholesteric blue phases, since it contains defects. In contrast to analogous defect structures in nonpolar nematic liquid crystals, which are enforced by special boundary conditions only, the splay phase is the thermodynamically stable ground state for some temperature interval.
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Pleiner et al. (1989) studied this question.
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