Title:        Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals        Volume:
Author(s):        Lev M. Blinov (auth.)
Series:        Topics in Applied Physics 123        Periodical:       
Publisher:        Springer Netherlands        City:       
Year:        2011        Edition:        1
Language:        English        Pages:        439
ISBN:        9048188288, 9789048188284, 9789048188291

This book by Lev M. Blinov is ideal to guide researchers from their very first encounter with liquid crystals to the level where they can perform independent experiments on liquid crystals with a thorough understanding of their behaviour also in relation to the theoretical framework. Liquid crystals can be found everywhere around us. They are used in virtually every display device, whether it is for domestic appliances of for specialized technological instruments. Their finely tunable optical properties make them suitable also for thermo-sensing and laser technologies. There are many monographs written by prominent scholars on the subject of liquid crystals. The majority of them presents the subject in great depth, sometimes focusing on a particular research aspect, and in general they require a significant level of prior knowledge. In contrast, this books aims at an audience of advanced undergraduate and graduate students in physics, chemistry and materials science. The book consists of three parts: the first part, on structure, starts from the fundamental principles underlying the structure of liquid crystals, their rich phase behaviour and the methods used to study them; the second part, on physical properties, emphasizes the influence of anisotropy on all aspects of liquid crystals behaviour; the third, focuses on electro-optics, the most important properties from the applications standpoint. This part covers only the main effects and illustrates the underlying principles in greater detail. Professor Lev M. Blinov has had a long carrier as an experimentalist. He made major contributions in the field of ferroelectric mesophases. In 1985 he received the USSR state prize for investigations of electro-optical effects in liquid crystals for spatial light modulators. In 1999 he was awarded the Frederiks medal of the Soviet Liquid Crystal Society and in 2000 he was honoured with the G. Gray silver medal of the British Liquid Crystal Society. He has held many visiting academic positions in universities and laboratories across Europe and in Japan.

Table of contents :
Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Introductory Notes....Pages 1-4
Front Matter....Pages 5-5
Symmetry....Pages 7-18
Mesogenic Molecules and Orientational Order....Pages 19-40
Liquid Crystal Phases....Pages 41-73
Structure Analysis and X-Ray Diffraction....Pages 75-110
Phase Transitions....Pages 111-148
Front Matter....Pages 149-149
Magnetic, Electric and Transport Properties....Pages 151-187
Elasticity and Defects....Pages 189-231
Elements of Hydrodynamics....Pages 233-255
Liquid Crystal – Solid Interface....Pages 257-282
Front Matter....Pages 283-283
Optics and Electric Field Effects in Nematic and Smectic A Liquid Crystals....Pages 285-341
Electro-Optical Effects in Cholesteric Phase....Pages 343-379
Ferroelectricity and Antiferroelectricity in Smectics....Pages 381-431
Back Matter....Pages 433-439

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