Liquid crystals are condensed-matter systems that exhibit phases with orientational order of constituent anisotropic molecules while retaining partial fluidity characteristic of liquids. Depending on molecular organization and symmetry, they form distinct mesophases such as nematic, smectic, and cholesteric, each defined by specific order parameters and broken symmetries. Their physical behavior is governed by elastic continuum theories (e.g., Frank–Oseen) and coupling between director fields, flow, and external fields (electric, magnetic). Liquid crystals display anisotropic optical, dielectric, and rheological properties, enabling controllable phase transitions and defect structures that are central to both fundamental studies of soft matter and engineered photonic or electro-optic systems.
Robots and cameras of the future could be made of liquid crystals, thanks to a new discovery that significantly expands the potential of the chemicals already common in computer displays and digital watches.
Condensed Matter
Mar 4, 2024
0
193
Information security has become particularly crucial under the background of the big data era. Optical secret-sharing schemes encrypt information and physically divide it into different shares. Information can only be decrypted ...
Optics & Photonics
Feb 6, 2024
0
69
At the Tokyo Tech LG Material & Life Solution Collaborative Research Cluster, a joint research team has developed a ferroelectric dimeric liquid crystal with spontaneous polarization that exceeds (8 μCcm-2) and a dielectric ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 26, 2024
0
90
Sensing technology, integral to environmental monitoring, data acquisition, and precision data processing, is evolving rapidly. Researchers are at the forefront of developing swift, accessible, and cost-effective sensors. ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 25, 2024
0
50
A new study in Nature Communications investigates the electrical tuning of branched light flow in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) films, revealing controlled patterns and statistical characteristics with potential applications ...
Hold your hands out in front of you, and no matter how you rotate them, it's impossible to superimpose one over the other. Our hands are a perfect example of chirality—a geometric configuration by which an object cannot be ...
Soft Matter
Jan 8, 2024
1
155
The light control performance of photonic crystals is closely related to their lattice constant, which typically requires the lattice constant to be in the same order of magnitude as the working wavelength. In crystal materials, ...
Nanophysics
Jul 24, 2023
0
104
Prof. Peng Chenhui's team from the School of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), realized the collective transfer and reconfigurable self-assembly of colloidal particles by combining the light-driven ...
Nanophysics
Apr 21, 2023
0
135
Chirality is omnipresent in living organisms and nature. Chiral architectures can be found at a variety of hierarchical levels, ranging from atomic and molecular to supramolecular, macroscopic, and galactic scales. However, ...
Nanophysics
Oct 14, 2022
0
147
Although twisted sheets of double bilayer graphene have been studied extensively the past few years, there are still pieces missing in the puzzle that is its phase diagram—the different undisturbed, ground states of the system. ...
Nanophysics
Jan 6, 2022
0
230
