Liquid Crystalline Soft Materials with 3-Dimensional Periodic Structure

Smectic Liquid Crystals: Materials with One-Dimensional, Periodic Order

Abstract. Smectic liquid crystals are materials formed by stacking deformable, fluid layers. Though smectics prefer to have flat, uniformly-spaced layers, boundary conditions can impose curvature on the layers. Since the layer spacing and curvature are intertwined, the problem of finding minimal configurations for the layers becomes highly nontrivial. We discuss various topological and geometri...

n liquid crystalline elastomer materials

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) exhibit a number of remarkable physical effects, including the unique, high-stroke reversible mechanical actuation when triggered by external stimuli. This article reviews some recent exciting developments in the field of LCE materials with an emphasis on their utilization in actuator applications. Such applications include artificial muscles, industrial man...

Electronic Structure of Crystalline Materials

Spinodal decomposition in liquid crystalline materials

The theory of phase separation m a liquid crystal by spinodal decompoSit1on is developed The time evolution of two coupled parameters, the volume concentration (or mole fraction), and the orientational order parameter is calculated The conditions for penodic fluctuations are gJven and the structure factor for spinodal decomposition is studied

Perhydroazulene-based liquid-crystalline materials with smectic phases

New liquid-crystalline materials with a perhydroazulene core were synthesized and the stereochemistry of these compounds was investigated. The mesomorphic properties of the new LC compounds were investigated by differential scanning colorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction. We report here on the LC properties of nonchiral materials, which predominantly exhibit smectic ph...