Thermotropic liquid crystals can be formed by various molecular shapes, some discovered
over 125 years ago. The simplest and most-studied liquid crystals are made of rod-shaped …

The fundamental concepts of the homotopy theory of defects in liquid crystals and the results
of experimental studies in this field are presented. The concepts of degeneracy space …

Given the widespread interest in macroscopic phenomena in liquid crystals, stemming from
their applications in displays and devices. The need has arisen for a rigorous yet accessible …

Liquid crystals are partially ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. The study
of these materials covers a wide area: chemical structure, physical properties and technical …

Based on graduate lectures given by the authors, Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals:
Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments examines lamellar (smectic) …

Defects are local breakings of symmetry in an ordered medium. The physics of defects has
long been reduced to the study of dislocations in solids, and to the main physical …

The study of defects in ordered media has become a subject of considerable interest to
condensed matter physicists in recent years. This article presents a systematic account of …

The twist‐bend nematic, NTB, phase has been observed for chiral materials in which
chirality is introduced through a branched 2‐methylbutyl terminal tail. The chiral twist‐bend …

Highly ordered, near-single-crystal lamellar films of a triblock copolymer (polystyrene−
polybutadiene− polystyrene, PS/PB/PS) were used to study the deformation mechanism of a …

A detailed microscopy study of the mesophases of 1, 11-di-(1′′-cyanobiphenyl-4-yl)
undecane (CB11CB) was undertaken, with an emphasis on attempting to relate the recent …