Advanced Applications of Liquid Crystals

The combination of liquid (mobility) and solid (order) properties allows important and very wide applications of liquid crystals. They are very sensitive to external changes such as temperature, pressure, light, electric or magnetic field, mechanical stimulus, boundary conditions, chemical environment, etc. This property is responsible for the wide applications of liquid crystalline materials. Some of the potential applications include thermography, medical thermography, display devices, switches for optical wave guide, optical communication, optical fiber laser, optical filters, large varieties of sensors, holographic optical components, optical storage, photonic applications, photonic crystals lasers, polarization convertors, pharmaceutical applications, medical diagnostics, cosmetic industry and a number of biological applications. The present chapter 10 is concerned with the discussion, in brief, of some of the advanced applications of calamitic liquid crystals.