1st Edition

Liquid Crystals Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments, Two Volume Set

    These volumes are a result of the personal research and graduate lectures given by the authors at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and the University of Paris VII, respectively. Featuring an easy-to-follow, accessible style, each volume describes important concepts and physical properties using classroom-friendly experiments, many of which the professors used in their own classes, and clear diagrams.

    Although Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments can be used as an independent text, it is an ideal and complementary companion to Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments.

    Featuring topics that seldom appear in current literature, these volumes represent an ideal introduction and a valuable source of reference for theoretical and experimental studies of advanced students and researchers in liquid crystals, condensed matter physics, and materials science.

    Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals:  Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments
    OVERVIEW
    Some History
    Modern Classification of Liquid Crystals
    Mesogenic Anatomy
    MESOPHASES WITH AN ORIENTATIONAL ORDER
    Structure and Dielectric Properties of the Nematic Phase
    Nematoelasticity: Frederiks Transition and Light Scattering
    Nematodynamics and Flow Instabilities
    Defects and Textures in Nematics
    Anchoring and Anchoring Transitions of Nematics on Solid Surfaces
    The Nematic-Isotropic Liquid Interface: Static Properties and Directional Growth Instabilities
    Cholesterics: the First Example of a Frustrated Mesophase
    Blue Phases: a Second Example of a Frustrated Mesophase
    Overview of Growth Phenomena and the Mullins-Sekerka Instability
    Subject index
    Author index
    Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments
    Dedication
    Preface to the English edition
    SMECTIC AND COLUMNAR LIQUID CRYSTALS
    Structure of the Smectic A Phase and the Transition Toward the Nematic Phase
    Continuum Theory of Smectics A Hydrodynamics
    Dislocations, Focal Conics, and Rheology of Smectics A
    Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Mesophases
    The Twist-Grain Boundary Smectics
    Hexatic Smectics
    The Smectic B Plastic Crystal
    Smectic Free Films
    Columnar Phases
    Growth of a Columnar Hexagonal Phase
    Subject index
    Author index

    Biography

    Patrick Oswald, Pawel Pieranski

    “…authoritative and detailed…one notices the importance given to topics that have only received limited coverage elsewhere in the literature, such as surface phenomena (anchoring, faceting) and the dynamics of growth or deformation.”
    — Jacques Friedel, Académie des Sciences, Paris, France