Liquid crystals blue phase

Matthew Marcus (center) received his PhD. in 1978from Harvard and joined Bell laboratories the same year. At Bell Labs, he worked on a variety of problems in materials science, with an emphasis on structure. Some of these problems include the structure of the liquid crystal blue phase, the precipitation kinetics of in Al films (probed by EXAFS), the relation between local structure and luminescence of Er in silica and silicon, and the structure and vibrations of nanoparticles of Au and CdSe. His contributions to EXAFS technique include methods for preparing samples and improved methods for fitting sets of data taken at different temperatures. In 1998, he left Bell Labs to work for KLA-Tencor, helping develop a new kind of PEEM-related electron microscope for wafer inspection. In 2001 he took on the position of Beamline Scientist at the Advanced Light Source, where he collaborates on environmental and materials problems using an X-ray microprobe. 

W. Cao, A. Munoz, P. Palffy-Muhoray, B. Taheri, Lasing in a three-dimensional photonic crystal of the liquid crystal blue phase 11. Nat. Mater. 1, 111-113 (2002)... 

A. Mazzulla, G. Petriashvili, M.A. Matranga, M.P. De Santo, R. Barberi, Thermal and electrical laser tuning in liquid crystal blue phase I. Soft Matter 8, 4882-4885 (2012)... 

P. Cladis, T. Garel, P. Pieranski, Kossel diagrams show electric-field-induced cubic-tetragonal structural transition in frustrated liquid-crystal blue phases. Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2841-2844 (1986)... 

H. Kikuchi, M. Yokota, Y. Hisakado, et al.. Polymer-stabilized liquid crystal blue phases, Nat. Mater. 1(1), 64 (2002). 

R. J. Miller and H. F. Gleeson.Order parameter measurements from the Kossel diagrams of the liquid-crystal blue phases, Phys. Rev. E52, 5011-5016 (1995). 

H. J. Coles and M. N. Pivnenko, Liquid crystal blue phases with a wide temperature range. Nature 436, 997-1000 (2005). 

H. Stegemeyer, T. H. Bliimel, K. Hiltrop, et al.. Thermodynamic, stmctural and morphological studies on liquid-crystalline blue phases. Liquid Crystals, 1, 3 (1986). 

Discotic blue phases Discotic liquid crystals Discover Disc Tube... 

Liquid crystal display technology, 15 113 Liquid crystalline cellulose, 5 384-386 cellulose esters, 5 418 Liquid crystalline conducting polymers (LCCPs), 7 523-524 Liquid crystalline compounds, 15 118 central linkages found in, 15 103 Liquid crystalline materials, 15 81-120 applications of, 15 113-117 availability and safety of, 15 118 in biological systems, 15 111-113 blue phases of, 15 96 bond orientational order of, 15 85 columnar phase of, 15 96 lyotropic liquid crystals, 15 98-101 orientational distribution function and order parameter of, 15 82-85 polymer liquid crystals, 15 107-111 polymorphism in, 15 101-102 positional distribution function and order parameter of, 15 85 structure-property relations in,... 

Sensitized for blue-green or red light, photoconductive polyimides and liquid crystal mixtures of cyanobiphenyls and azoxybenzene have been used in spatial light modulators [255-261]. Modulation procedure was achieved by means of the electrically controlled birefringence, optical activity, cholesteric-nematic phase transition, dynamic scattering and light scattering in polymer-dispersed liquid crystals. 

Nakata M, Takanishi Y, Watanabe J, Takezoe H (2003) Blue phases induced by doping chiral nematic liquid crystals with non-chiral molecules. Phys Rev E 68 041710-1-6... 

Taushanoff S, Le KV, Williams J, Twieg RJ, Sadashiva BK, Takezoe H, Jakli A (2010) Stable amorphous blue phase of bent-core nematic liquid crystals doped with a chiral material. J Mater Chem 20 5893-5898... 

Cladis, P. E., Pieranski, P., Joanicot, M., Elasticity of blue phase-I of cholesteric liquid-crystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1984, 52, 542-545. 

Whether quasicrystalline structures are limited to alloys remains an open question. It is possible that their occurrence is much more widespread than had been previously thought. Indeed there is evidence for quasicrystallinity in both thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals. Diffraction patterns of decagonal symmetry have been recorded in lyotropic liquid crystals [K. Fontell, private communication], (Fig. 2.19), and there is theoretical evidence for the existence of a quasicrystalline structure within the blue phase of cholesterol (Chapters 4, 5). (The decagonal structure has quasisymmetry perpendicular to the tenfold axes, and translation symmetry along them.) Viruses crystallise in icosahedral clusters and the list continues to grow. In addition to five-fold symmetry, it has been shown that eight and ten- fold quasisymmetry is possible. ... 

In the case of thermotropic liquid crystals, a surface description is mathematically useful, but physically misleading, since these surfaces are fictional they serve only to describe the three-dimensional variation of molecular orientation. An alternative description of blue phases in tem s of close-packing of chiral rods can be found in die next Chapter (section 5.1.8). 

Fig. 1 Diagrams depicting a a layer of a cubic sodium chloride crystal b a monoclinic 1,3-dimethylimidazolium chloride ionic-liquid crystal c two radial distribution functions (RDFs) in liquid l-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate. Anions and cations are depicted in red and blue. In the cases of b and c the blue circles represent the centroid of the imidazolium rings of the cations. The alternating sequences of red and blue circles in a and b as well as the two curves in phase opposition in c clearly indicate the existence and nature of the polar networks in ionic condensed phases...

Early studies on blue phase were assuredly marked by one astonishing discovery after another, such as the narrow stable temperature range, optical isotropy, three-dimensional order, and frustration. These unique characteristics, not observed in any other liquid crystal phases, have enthralled these pioneering researchers, as is obvious from their writings. 

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