Open Access Kent State (OAKS)

A biaxial nematic phase had been predicted with D2h symmetry, wherein the mesogen’s long and short transverse axes are simultaneously aligned along the two orthogonal, primary and secondary directors,n and m, respectively. The unique low-angle x-ray diffraction patterns in the nematic phases exhibited by three rigid bent-core mesogens clearly reveal their biaxiality. The results of x-ray diffraction can be readily reproduced by ab initio calculations that explicitly include the bent-core shape in the form factor and assume short-range positional correlations.