Liquid crystals allow us to perform experiments that provide insight into fundamental problems of modern physics, such as phase transitions, frustration, elasticity, hydrodynamics, defects, growth phenomena, and optics (linear and non linear). This excellent volume meets the need for an up-to-date text on liquid crystals. Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments is a result of personal research and of the graduate lectures given by the authors at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon and the University of Paris VII, respectively....
Liquid crystals allow us to perform experiments that provide insight into fundamental problems of modern physics, such as phase transitions, frustrati...
Based on graduate lectures given by the authors, Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments examines lamellar (smectic) and columnar liquid crystals, which, in addition to orientational order, possess 1D, 2D or 3D positional order. Topics include rheology and plasticity, ferroelectricity, analogies with superconductors, hexatic order and 2D-melting, equilibrium shapes, facetting, and the Mullins-Sekerka instability, as well as phase transitions in free films and membrane vibrations. Nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals are covered by...
Based on graduate lectures given by the authors, Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments exa...
