Liquid Crystals are partially ordered system without a rigid, long ranged structure, are beautiful and mysterious. In symmetry and structure, they are intermediate between the solid crystalline state and isotropic liquid state. The study of liquid crystalline materials covers a wide area: chemical structure, physical properties and technical applications. Due to their dual nature anisotropic physical properties of solids and rheological properties and easy response to external perturbations (electric field, magnetic field etc.), liquid crystals are of greatest potential of scientific and...

This expert and self-contained authored handbook provides comprehensive coverage of liquid crystals from the fundamental materials science, physics, and modeling through cutting-edge applications. Written by an author with over 40 years of active experience in this growing field, it offers an unprecedented self-contained treatment of this key research area.

Liquid Crystals are a state of matter sharing properties that are usually associated with both solids and liquids. Their study belongs to wider field of soft condensed matter physics, an area growing in importance because of the new...