Chirality in Liquid Crystals

Describes the main aspects of chirality in liquid crystals, and points out some of the open questions of current research. The chapters review the highlights of the important topics and questions.

Contenu

Classroom Experiments with Chiral Liquid Crystals.- From a Chiral Molecule to a Chiral Anisotropic Phase.- Chemical Structures and Polymorphism.- Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Defects and Topology.- Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Optics, Electro-optics, and Photo-optics.- Blue Phases.- Smectic Liquid Crystals: Ferroelectric Properties and Electroclinic Effect.- Smectic Liquid Crystals: Antiferroelectric and Ferrielectric Phases.- Twist Grain Boundary Phases.- Columnar Liquid Crystals.- Some Aspects of Polymer Dispersed and Polymer Stabilized Chiral Liquid Crystals.- Chirality in Liquid Crystal Elastomers.- Phase Chirality of Micellar Lyotropic Liquid Crystals.- Traveling Phase Boundaries with the Broken Symmetries of Life.