Overview

This new edition covers the main properties of nematics, cholesterics, and smectics and columnar phases, particularly the symmetry and the mechanical and optical characteristics of each phase. The latter includes some applications to display systems. De Gennes won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Physics. New chapters describe the main types and properties of liquid crystals in terms of the new phases discovered since the middle of the 1970s, and advances in the understanding of local order and the nature of the isotropic to nematic transition. There is an extensive discussion of the symmetry, and macroscopic and dynamic properties of smectics and columnar phases and their defects, illustrated with numerous descriptions of experimental arrangements. The final chapter is devoted to phase transitions in smectics, including the celebrated analogy between smectic A and superconductors. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on order-of-magnitude considerations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Pierre Gilles de Gennes ,  Jacques Prost
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Clarendon Press
Edition:   2nd Revised edition
Volume:   No. 83
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   1.182kg
ISBN:  

9780198520245

ISBN 10:   0198520247
Pages:   614
Publication Date:   01 December 1993
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"Part 1 Liquid crystals - main types and properties: introduction - what is a liquid crystal?; the building blocks; nematics and cholesterics; smectics; columnar phases; more on long-, quasi-long and short-range order; remarkable features of liquid crystals. Part 2 Long- and short-range order in nematics: definition of an order parameter; statistical theories of the nematic order; phenomonological description of the nematic-isotopic; mixtures. Part 3 Static distortion in a nematic single crystal: principles of the continuum theory; magnetic field effects; electric field effects in an insulating nematic; fluctuations in the alignment; hydrostatics of nematics. Part 4 Defects and textures in nematics: observations; disclination lines; point disclinations; walls under magnetic fields; umbilics; surface disclinations. Part 5 Dynamical properties of nematics: the equations of ""nematodynamics""; experiments measuring the Leslie co-efficients; convective instabilities under electric fields; molecular motions. Part 6 Cholesterics: optical properties of an ideal helix; agents influencing the pitch; dynamical properties; textures and defects in cholesterics. Part 7 Smectics: symmetry of the main smectic phases; continuum description of smectics A and C; remarks on phase and precritical phenomena."

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