  Chiral domains of opposite chirality are observed surprisingly in a nematic
phase of an achiral rod-like liquid crystalline mesogen that shows
ferroelectric nematic and antiferroelectric smectic phases. The observations of
chiral domains of opposite chirality are enabled by application of a weak
electric field across a planar-aligned cell. However once domains of opposite
chirality are created, these stay permanently even if the field is removed. The
observed phenomenon is due to the symmetry breaking of achiral mesogens of
rod-shaped molecules. These domains are similarly observed in the Nx phase.
However for temperatures close or in the NF, the size of domains is reduced
significantly below the wavelength of visible light. There is either a single
domain with dipole moments parallel to the surface or domains antiparallel in
the NF phase, not possible to determine in this experiment.
