  We report the experimental investigations on a liquid crystal comprised of
thiophene-based achiral bent-core banana shaped molecules. The results reveal
the presence of a short range nematic phase at high temperatures and a
long-range SmA phase at lower temperatures, which transits to a SmC phase on
further cooling the sample. Practically no layer contraction was observed
across the SmA to SmC transition, indicating the de Vries nature of the SmA
phase. Interestingly, the crystallization does not occur on cooling the sample
till 223 K; instead, a glass transition at 271 K was observed. The dielectric
spectroscopy studies carried out on the sample reveal the presence of a
dielectric mode whose relaxation process is of the Cole-Cole type. The
relaxation frequency of the mode was found to drop rapidly with decreasing
temperature, further confirming the glassy behavior. The variation of
relaxation frequency with temperature follows the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann
equation indicating the fragile glassy nature of the sample.
