Liquid Crystals In Complex Geometries

Focusing on the applied and basic aspects of confined liquid crystals, this book provides a current treatise of the subject matter and places it in the broader context of electrooptic applications. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the

Introduction - This book, consisting of 10 chapters, should be treated as a complement that brings the reader up to date with the latest contributions to the rich literature on liquid crystals. A prominent place in this literature is occupied by the dielectric properties which are important in estimation of usefulness of these materials and in understanding the molecular processes determining various mesophases. In the field of dielectrics in general, and in connection with the structure and phase transitions the entries in references [1-14] can be recommended. With respect to general aspects of liquid-crystalline properties and molecular dynamics one can point out the references [15-36]. Most of them contain as well chapters on dielectric properties. In addition there is a number of books and monographs related strictly to the dielectric properties of liquid crystals, in particular references [37-45]. For the readers less familiar with this topic and interested in the basic knowledge of dielectric aspects of liquid crystals one can suggest the reviews [46-48]. Basic difference between properties of isotropic liquid and liquid crystal lies in the existence in the latter case of at least one degree of order. The ordering can be also considered with respect to a crystalline phase. Thus introducing at least one degree of disorder (rotational or translational) causes the occurrence of a mesophase which, however, is not identical with the liquid-crystalline phase. If the mesophase is to be liquid-crystalline, it should possess at least one translational degree of disorder. The disorder connected with further degrees of freedom leads to rich polymorphism. The most characteristic feature of liquid-crystalline phases is a precisely defined degree of disorder of molecules building these phases and their anisotropy which is exhibited in molecular structure and all measurable physical parameters such as polarizability. This is the reason why such phases are also called anisotropic liquids. The insertion into the molecules that form mesophases of fragments either chiral or influencing antagonistically already present fragments (e.g. by replacing one alkyl group by perfluorinated chain) leads to additional interactions which compete with interactions responsible for the stability of liquid-crystalline phases. This causes the frustration phenomena, i.e. the mutual overlapping of interactions frequently responsible for opposite effects. These induced phenomena conduce to unexpected structures (banana-type or columnar-type mesophases) and properties such as helicity, ferroelectricity or antiferroelectricity. Of particular interest seem to be ferroelectric liquid crystals (chiral tilted smectics such as SmC*, SmI* and others) showing collective modes: tilt fluctuations (soft modes) and phase fluctuations (Goldstone mode). Unusual progress observed in the last half-century has occurred due to use of some additional interacting fragments and structural details. Liquid crystalline polymers and metalomesogens present rapidly growing branches of knowledge of liquid crystal. Ferromagnetism and superconductivity of liquid crystals still pose a challenge. In this monograph we present different aspects of dielectric properties of mesogens. Chapter 1 presented by Otowski is dedicated to general problems of the molecular dipole s motion in electric field. Based on the broadband dielectric studies results of a few liquid-crystalline substances, their dielectric behavior is discussed by means of Nordio-Rigatti-Segre theory. The pretransitional anomalies observed in isotropic phase close to the phase transitions by means of dielectric measurements are described by Drozd-Rzoska, Rzoska and Janik in Chapter 2. An extended part of this book is devoted to chiral liquid crystals, the importance of which for applications and expectations for them are continuously increasing. The principles of the dielectric behavior of chiral liquid-crystalline compounds based on general considerations applying for other dipolar systems as well is presented by Hoffmann in Chapter 3. In general considerations based on the example of 12 selected substances showing extremely rich polymorphism Marzec, Mikulko, Wróbel and Haase analyze impressive behaviors of collective modes (Chapter 4). The problem of non-linear dielectric effects constitutes an important part of this book. A general introduction to the non-linear dielectric spectroscopy is contained in Chapter 5 elaborated by Kedziora, who concentrates himself on the isotropic phase, solutions and precritical phenomena. The problem of molecular properties of smectic materials and relaxation in ferroelectric liquid crystals with particular attention paid to electrooptic phenomena are discussed by Kuczynski in Chapter 6. Advantages of electrooptic methods applied to chiral tilted smectic liquid crystals with either ferroelectric or antiferroelectric dipole order are known. However, less popular problem of so called organic glass formers presented by Massalska-Arodz, Sciesinska, Sciesinski, Krawczyk, Inoba and Zielinski in Chapter 7 deserved attentions. Properties of these materials are discussed by using the results of complementary methods such as INS, QENS, adiabatic calorimetry and far-infrared spectra. Chapter 8, presented by Rózanski, is devoted to the dielectric properties of liquid crystals confined in porous matrices or dispersed throughout solid matrices. Such systems seem to be fascinating not only from the point of view of surface interactions but also due to attractive properties of dispersed systems in nanoscale. Of great value is also Chapter 9 by Kocot, Merkel, Sufin, Vij and Mehl describing dendrimeric liquid crystals built of molecules containing siloxane or carbosilazane cores. The problems of dynamics and ordering are discussed in terms of IR and dielectric spectroscopy results. Chapter 10, written by Urban, is committed to the relaxation processes in calamitic liquid crystals with emphasis on pressure and temperature effects. Finally let us direct readers attention to general references relating to the new liquid crystalline compounds [49] and IUPAC classification of these systems [50]. 1. Boettcher C. J. F., van Belle O.C., Bordewijk P. and Rip A., 1973, Theory of Electric Polarization, Vol.I: Dielectrics in Static Fields, 2nd revised edition, Elsevier Science Ltd, Amsterdam. 2. Boettcher C.J.F. and Bordewijk, 1978, Theory of Electric Polarization, Vol.II. Dielectrics in Time-dependent Fields, 2nd revised edition, Elsevier Science Ltd, Amsterdam. 3. Hill N., Vaughan W.E., Price A.H. and Davies M., 1969, Dielectric Properties and Molecular Behaviour, van Nostrand, London. 4. Froehlich H., 1958, Theory of Dielectrics, Oxford University Press, London. 5. von Hippel A.R., 1995, Dielectric Materials and Applications, Artech House Publishers. 6. Davies M., 1965, Some Electrical and Optical Aspects of Molecular Behaviour, Pergamon Press, Oxford. 7. Scaife B.K.P., 1998, Principle of Dielectrics, Revised edition, Oxford University Press, Clarendon, Oxford. 8. Riande E. and Diaz-Calleja R., 2004, Electrical Properties of Polymers, Marcel Dekker, NY. 9. Jonscher A.K., 1996, Universal Relaxation Law, Chelsea Dielectric Press Ltd, London. 10. Grigas J., 1996, Microwave Dielectric Spectroscopy of Ferroelectrics and Related Materials, Series: Ferroelectricity and Related Phenomena, Volume 9, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Philadelphia. 11. Runt J.P. and Fitzgerald J.J.(Eds.), 1997, Dielectric Spectroscopy of Polymeric Materials, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. 12. Havriliak S. and Havriliak S.J., 1996, Dielectric and Mechanical Relaxation in Materials, Hanser Verlag, München. 13. Gaiduk V.I. and McConnel J.R., 1999, Dielectric Relaxation and Dynamics of Polar Molecules, World Scientific Pub. Co.Inc., Singapore. 14. Kremer F. and Schönhals A. (Eds) 2002, Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy, Springer, NY. 15. Demus D., Goodby J., Gray G.W., Spiess H.W. and Vill V. (Eds.), 1998, Handbook of Liquid Crystals, 4-Volume Set, Wiley-VCH, Veinheim. 16. Demus D., Goodby J., Gray G.W., Spiess H.W. and Vill V (Eds.), 1999, Physical Properties of Liquid Crystals, Wiley-VCH, Veinheim. 17. Stegemeyer H. (Ed.), 1994, Liquid Crystals, Steinkopff, Darmstadt and Springer, NY. 18. Buka A. (Ed.), 1993, Modern Topics in Liquid Crystals. From Neutron Scattering to Ferroelectricity, World Scientific, Singapore. 19. Dierking I., 2003. Texture of Liquid Crystals, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 20. Luckhurst G.R. and Gray G.W. (Eds.), 1979, The Molecular Physics of Liquid Crystals, Academic Press, London. 21. de Gennes P.G. and Prost J., 1993, The Physics of Liquid Crystals, 2nd edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 22. Gray G.W. and Goodby J.W., 1984, Smectic Liquid Crystals. Textures and Structures, Leonard Hill, Glasgow. 23. Martellucci S. and Chester A.N. (Eds.), 1992, Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals, NATO ASI Series, Vol.B290, Plenum Press, NY. 24. Luckhurst G.R. and Veracini C.A. (Eds.), 1994. The Molecular Dynamics of Liquid Crystals, NATO ASI Series, Vol.C431, Kluwer, Dordrecht. 25. Priestley E.B., Wojtowicz P.J. and Sheng P. (Eds.), 1975, Introduction to Liquid Crystals, Plenum Press, NY. 26. Lagerwall S.T., 1999, Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystals, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. 27. Baus M., Rull L.F. and Ryckaert J.P. (Eds.), 1995, Observation, Prediction and Simulation of Phase Traansitions in Complex Fluids, Kluwer, Dordrecht. 28. Anisimov M.A., 1991, Critical Phenomena in Liquids and Liquid Crystals, Gordon & Breach, Philadelphia 29. Vertogen G. and de Jeu W.H., 1986, Thermotropic Liquid Crystals, Fundamentals, Springer, Berlin 30. de Jeu W.H., 1980, Physical Properties of Liquid Crystalline Materials, Gordon & Breach, NY 31. Helfrich W. and Heppke G., (Eds.), 1980, Liquid Crystals of One and Two Dimensional Order, Springer, Berlin. 32. Goodby J.W., Blinc R., Clark N.A., Lagerwall S.T., Osipov M.A., Pikin S.A., Sakurai T., Yoshino K. and }eka B., 1991, Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals. Principles, Properties and Applications, Series: Ferroelectricity and Related Phenomena, Volume 7. Gordon and Breach, Philadelphia. 33. Pikin S.A., 1991, Structural Transformations in Liquid Crystals, Gordon and Breach, NY. 34. Haberlandt R., Michel D., Poppel A. and Stannarius R., 2005, Molecules in interaction with surfaces and interfaces, Springer NY. 35. Crawford G.P. and }umer S., (Eds), Liquid Crystals in Complex Geometries, 1996, Taylor & Francis, London. 36. Muaevic I., Blinc R. and }eka B., 2000, The Physics of Ferroelectric and Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystals, World Scientific, Singapore. 37. Haase W. and Wróbel S. (Eds.), 2003, Relaxation Phenomena. Liquid Crystals, Magnetic Systems, Polymers, High-TC Superconductors, Metallic Glasses., Springer, NY. 38. Kresse H., 1983, in: Advances in Liquid Crystals, Vol.6, Brown G.H. (ed.), Academic Press, NY. 39. Coffey W.T. and Kalmykov Y.P. 2000, Adv.Chem.Phys. 111, 487. 40. de Jeu W.H., 1978, in: Solid State Physics, Supplement 14. Liebert L. (ed.), Academic Press. 41. Rzoska S.J. and Zhelezny V.P., (Eds), 2004, Nonlinear Dielectric Phenomena in Complex Liquids, Kluwer, Dordrecht. 42. Urban S. and Wuerflinger A., 1979, Adv.Chem.Phys., 98, 143. 43. Kresse H., 1982, Fortschrifte der Physik, 80, 507. 44. Urban S., 2001, in: Physical Properties of Liquid Crystals: Nematics, Dunmur D., Fukuda A. and Luckhurst G. (Eds.), Inspec, London, p.267. 45. Blinov L.M. and Chigrinov V.G., 1994, Electrooptic Effects in Liquid Crystal Materials, Springer, NY. 46. Meier G. and Saupe A., 1966, in: Liquid Crystals, Brown G.H., Dines G.J. and Labes M.M. (Eds.), Gordon and Breach, Philadelphia. 47. Kresse H., 1998, in: Handbook of Liquid Crystals, Demus D., Goodby J., Gray G.W., Spiess H.W. and Vill V. (Eds.), Vol.2, Wiley-VCH, Veinheim. 48. Dunmur D and Toriyama K., 1998, in: Handbook of Liquid Crystals, Demus D., Goodby J., Gray G.W., Spiess H.W. and Vill V. (Eds.), Vol. 1, Wiley-VCH, Veinheim. 49. Vill V., 2006, LiqCryst 4.6. Data Base, Fujitsu. 50. Byron M. et al. 2001, Pure Appl.Chem., 73, 845.

This book contains a comprehensive description of the mechanical equilibrium and deformation of membranes as a surface problem in differential geometry. Following the pioneering work by W Helfrich, the fluid membrane is seen as a nematic or smectic ? A liquid crystal film and its elastic energy form is deduced exactly from the curvature elastic theory of the liquid crystals. With surface variation the minimization of the energy at fixed osmotical pressure and surface tension gives a completely new surface equation in geometry that involves potential interest in mathematics. The investigations of the rigorous solution of the equation that have been carried out in recent years by the authors and their co-workers are presented here, among which the torus and the discocyte (the normal shape of the human red blood cell) may attract attention in cell biology. Within the framework of our mathematical model by analogy with cholesteric liquid crystals, an extensive investigation is made of the formation of the helical structures in a tilted chiral lipid bilayer, which has now become a hot topic in the fields of soft matter and biomembranes.

Distinct scientific communities are usually involved in the three fields of quasi-crystals, of liquid crystals, and of systems having modulated crystalline structures. However, in recent years, there has been a growing feeling that a number of common problems were encountered in the three fields. These comprise the need to recur to "exotic" spaces for describing the type of order of the atomic or molecular configurations of these systems (Euclidian "superspaces" of dimensions greater than 3, or 4-dimensional curved spaces); the recognition that one has to deal with geometrically frustrated systems, and also the occurence of specific excitations (static or dynamic) resulting from the continuous degeneracies of the stable structures considered. In the view of discussing these problems, aNA TO-Advance Research Workshop has assembled in Preveza (Greece), in september 1989,50 experts of the three considered fields (with an equal proportion of theorists and experimentalists). 35 hours of conferences and discussions have led to a more detailed evaluation of the similarities and of the differences in the approaches implemented in the studies of the three types of systems. The papers contained in this NATO-series book provide the substance of this workshop. The reader will find three types of papers. Some very short papers giving the main ideas stated on a subject. Papers comprising 8-10 pages which stick closely to the contents of the talks presented. Longer papers providing more extensively the background and results relative to a given topic. It is worth summarizing the principal outputs of the workshop.

The chemistry, physics, and applications of liquid crystals beyond LCDs Liquid Crystals (LCs) combine order and mobility on a molecular and supramolecular level. But while these remarkable states of matter are most commonly associated with visual display technologies, they have important applications for a variety of other fields as well. Liquid Crystals Beyond Displays: Chemistry, Physics, and Applications considers these, bringing together cutting-edge research from some of the most promising areas of LC science. Featuring contributions from respected researchers from around the globe, this edited volume emphasizes the chemistry, physics, and applications of LCs in areas such as photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes, filed-effect transistors, lasers, molecular motors, nanophotonics and biosensors. Specific chapters look at magnetic LCs, lyotropic chromonic LCs, LC-based chemical sensors, LCs in metamaterials, and much more. Introducing readers to the fundamentals of LC science through the use of illustrative examples, Liquid Crystals Beyond Displays covers not only the most recent research in the myriad areas in which LCs are being utilized, but also looks ahead, addressing potential future developments. Designed for physicists, chemists, engineers, and biologists working in academia or industry, as well as graduate students specializing in LC technology, this is the first book to consider LC applications across a wide range of fields.

These volumes are a result of the personal research and graduate lectures given by the authors at the ecole Normale Superieure 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

This is a monograph/text devoted to a detailed treatment of the optical, electro-optical and nonlinear optical properties of all the mesophases of liquid crystals and related processes, phenomena and application principles. Quantitative data on material and optical parameters spanning the ultraviolet, visible, infrared as well as the microwave regimes are presented along with detailed theoretical treatments of basic liquid crystal physics, material properties and nonlinear optics.Starting with a discussion on the basic building blocks of liquid crystalline molecules, the authors proceed to present in a pedagogical manner current theories, experiments, and applications of these unique and important optical properties of liquid crystals. Numerous tables of hard-to-find liquid crystalline parameters, a self-contained chapter on general nonlinear optics, and comprehensive literature review are also included.

Liquid Crystal Devices are crucial and ubiquitous components of an ever-increasing number of technologies. They are used in everything from cellular phones, eBook readers, GPS devices, computer monitors and automotive displays to projectors and TVs, to name but a few. This second edition continues to serve as an introductory guide to the fundamental properties of liquid crystals and their technical application, while explicating the recent advancements within LCD technology. This edition includes important new chapters on blue-phase display technology, advancements in LCD research significantly contributed to by the authors themselves. This title is of particular interest to engineers and researchers involved in display technology and graduate students involved in display technology research. Key features: Updated throughout to reflect the latest technical state-of-the-art in LCD research and development, including new chapters and material on topics such as the properties of blue-phase liquid crystal displays and 3D liquid crystal displays; Explains the link between the fundamental scientific principles behind liquid crystal technology and their application to photonic devices and displays, providing a thorough understanding of the physics, optics, electro-optics and material aspects of Liquid Crystal Devices; Revised material reflecting developments in LCD technology, including updates on optical modelling methods, transmissive LCDs and tunable liquid crystal photonic devices; Chapters conclude with detailed homework problems to further cement an understanding of the topic.