We review the theoretical research on the influence of disorder on structure and phase behavior of condensed matter system exhibiting continuous symmetry breaking focusing on liquid crystal phase transitions. We discuss the main properties of liquid crystals as adequate systems in which several open questions with respect to the impact of disorder on universal phase and structural behavior coul...

We report three liquid crystal (LC) mixtures with a wide nematic range (−40°C to ~100°C), small visco-elastic coefficient and low activation energy for vehicular displays. Physical properties at different temperatures were characterized. These LCs greatly improve the performance of different display devices in a car: 1) for head-up projection using liquid-crystal-onsilicon with an average gray-...

The orientation of liquid crystal molecules is very sensitive towards contacting surfaces, and this phenomenon is critical during the fabrication of liquid crystal display panels, as well as optical and memory devices. To date, research has focused on designing and modifying solid surfaces. Here we report an approach to control the orientation of liquid crystals from the free (air) surface side...

Reflective cholesteric liquid crystal displays (Ch-LCD) with bistability are very attractive because of their excellent readability, low power consumption with image memory, high reflectivity, high contrast ratio at a wide viewing angle, and a low manufacturing cost[1]. Cholesteric liquid crystal displays have several unique features suitable for mobile displays, public information displays, si...

Water exists in at least two families of glassy states, broadly categorized as the low-density (LDA) and high-density amorphous ice (HDA). Remarkably, LDA and HDA can be reversibly interconverted via appropriate thermodynamic paths, such as isothermal compression and isobaric heating, exhibiting first-order-like phase transitions. We perform out-of-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of ...

Liquid crystals are often combined with polymers to influence the liquid crystals' orientation and mechanical properties, but at the expense of reorientation speed or uniformity of alignment. We introduce a new method to create self-assembled nematic liquid-crystal gels using an ABA triblock copolymer with a side-group liquid-crystalline midblock and liquid-crystal-phobic endblocks. In contrast...