The polymorphism of resorcinol has been complementary studied by combining Raman, time-domain terahertz, and inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy with modern solid-state density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The spectral differences, emerging from the temperature-induced structural phase transition, have been successfully interpreted with an emphasis on the low-wavenumber range. The given interpretation is based on the plane-wave DFT computations, providing an excellent overall reproduction of both wavenumbers and intensities and revealing the source of the observed spectral differences. The performance of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) functionals in prediction of the structural parameters and the vibrational spectra of the normal-pressure polymorphs of resorcinol has been extensively examined. The results show that the standard Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE) approach along with its "hard" revised form tends to be superior if compared to the "soft" GGA approximation.

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A method of determining the set of four order parameters S , D , P , and C for a ferroelectric liquid crystal, using complementary results for different sample geometries, is presented. IR measurements have been performed for homeotropic, planar heterogeneous and, planar homogenous sample geometries. Orientational order parameters were determined in two frames of reference to obtain complete information on molecular arrangement. Results for the D , P , and C parameters indicate the importance of both the intrinsic and extrinsic biaxialities. The molecular rotation around the long molecular axis is not free, and the carbonyl dipole and plane of the central phenyl ring are oriented close to the tilt plane. It has been found that transition dipole moments show significant correlations, antiparallel for longitudinal dipoles and parallel for transversal ones.

The experimental and theoretical vibrational spectroscopic study of one of a novel antiferroelectric liquid crystals (AFLC), known under the MHPSBO10 acronym, have been undertaken. The interpretation of both FT-IR and FT-Raman spectra was focused mainly on the solid-state data. To analyze the experimental results along with the molecular properties, density functional theory (DFT) computations were performed using several modern theoretical approaches. The presented calculations were performed within the isolated molecule model, probing the performance of modern exchange-correlations functionals, as well as going beyond, i.e., within hybrid (ONIOM) and periodic boundary conditions (PBC) methodologies. A detailed band assignment was supported by the normal-mode analysis with SQM ab initio force field scaling. The results are supplemented by the noncovalent interactions analysis (NCI). The relatively noticeable spectral differences observed upon Crystal to AFLC phase transition have also been reported. For the most prominent vibrational modes, the geometries of the transition dipole moments along with the main components of vibrational polarizability were analyzed in terms of the molecular frame. One of the goals of the paper was to optimize the procedure of solid-state calculations to obtain the results comparable with the all electron calculations, performed routinely for isolated molecules, and to test their performance. The presented study delivers a complex insight into the vibrational spectrum with a noticeable improvement of the theoretical results obtained for significantly attracting mesogens using modern molecular modeling approaches. The presented modeling conditions are very promising for further description of similar large molecular crystals.