Elementary Liquid Crystal Physics
摘要
Liquid crystal is an intermediate state of matter ubiquitous in modern life with physical properties intermediate between those of conventional crystalline solids and conventional amorphous liquids. A large number of organic and inorganic compounds are known to go through several discrete liquid crystal phases when it is cooled from the isotropic liquid state to the anisotropic solid crystalline state (Chandrasekhar in Liquid crystals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1992 [1], pp. 1). Nematic liquid crystals are the simplest liquid crystalline phase as well as the most widely used in applications.