Bilbao Liquid Crystals Group

Members

Current:

• Josu Martínez-Perdiguero
• Aitor Erkoreka
• Josu Ortega
• Ibon Alonso
• Mª Rosario de la Fuente

Past:

• Jesús Etxebarria
• César L. Folcia
• Miguel Ángel Pérez Jubindo
• Nerea Sebastián
• Beatriz Robles-Hernández

Research Lines

• Ferroelectric and Polar Liquid Crystals: Structure, phase behavior, and dynamics of ferroelectric nematic, splay-nematic, and polar smectic phases.
• Dielectric Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics: Broadband dielectric spectroscopy to study relaxation processes, collective modes, and molecular motion in liquid crystals and soft matter.
• Electro-Optical and Nonlinear Optical Properties: Electric-field-induced phenomena, second harmonic generation, and nonlinear optical responses in polar and chiral liquid crystals.
• Liquid Crystal Dimers and Bent-Core Systems: Glassy dynamics, phase transitions, and structure-property relationships in nonsymmetric dimers and bent-core materials.
• Soft Functional Materials and Photonic Structures: Liquid-crystal-based photonic crystals, resonant cavities, lasers, and tunable optical devices.
• Quantum Chemistry Calculations.

Experimental Techniques

• Second harmonic generation
• Broadband dielectric spectroscopy
• Spontaneous polarization measurements
• X-ray diffraction
• Dynamic light scattering
• Polarization optical microscopy

Publications

2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020

Collaborators

• Nerea Sebastián & Alenka Mertelj, Department of Complex Matter | F7, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Satoshi Aya & Mingjun Huang, South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology (AISMST), School of Molecular Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
• Zi-Yi Du & Rui-Kang Huang, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
• Alberto Concellón & Teresa Sierra, Liquid Crystals and Polymers Group, Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón INMA, University of Zaragoza-CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain
• Alberto Oleaga, Photothermal Techniques Laboratory, Department of Applied Physics, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain

Research Projects/Contracts

Current:

• 2024-2028: Proyectos de Generación del Conocimiento, Project ID2023-150255NB-I00 from MCIU/AEI/10.13039/5011000-11033/FEDER, UE., Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spanish Government
• 2022-2025: Basque Government Grupos Consolidados Project IT1458-22, Basque Government
• 2025-2026: Private Contract on sample monocristallinity assurance via Laue X-ray diffraction

Contact