Soft Matter

Concepts, Phenomena, and Applications

6. Liquid Crystals

forWebsiteLogosIcons-12-1-150x150-1-1-1-1-1-1.png
forWebsiteLogosIcons-02-150x150-2-1-1-1-1-1.png
forWebsiteLogosIcons-03-1-150x150-2-1-1-1-1-1.png
forWebsiteLogosIcons-04-1-150x150-1-1-1-1-1-1.png
forWebsiteLogosIcons-05-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-09-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-08-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-07-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-06-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-10-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-11-1-150x150
forWebsiteLogosIcons-08
6.1

6.2
6.5
6.6
6.9
6.10
Problems
Coding Problems
Errata

The additional material is organized according to book sections and it includes links to (review) papers mentioned in the book, videos of different phenomena we discuss (experiments and simulations), as well as links to online lectures that address certain topics in more details.

6.1  Liquid Crystals as mesophases

A very nice introduction with wonderful images of liquid crystals and an explanation of LCD’s.
From The Lutetium Project.

More physics-oriented introductions at the level of this book. Left lecture by Patrick Shamberger. From Shamberger  (left) and Crystalmanipulation (right).

Four lectures by Jonathan Selinger on liquid crystals, at the UMass Summer school.
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4.

6.2 Landau-de Gennes approach to the I-N transition

A nice lecture by Patrick Shamberger on order parameters and liquid crystals.
From Shamberger.

A lecture by Jonathan Selinger on Landau-de Gennes theory relevant for this section.
From Selinger. 

Demonstration by Andrew Balchunas of a flow-induced IN transition. 
From DogicLab.

6.5 The Fréedericksz transition and LCD’s

A general introductory lecture on liquid crystals.
From ChemistryatHull.

Animation of how an LCD works.
From Jo’s World.

6.6 Topological defects in the director orientation

Nematic schlieren picture evolving in time.
From LC-scienceinfo.

Nematic between rotating crossed polarizers. The sense of rotation of each pattern reflects the sign of the defect charge, see figure 6.17.
From Corematerials.

6.9 Opportunities and challenges

Watch the movement and rearrangement of epithelial cells.
From Cell Press.

This lecture on active nematics (relevant for ch 9) by Julia Yeomans also discusses liquid crystal order in epithelial cells and the impact on the dynamics. From FLUIDOS.

A series of four lectures on “Self Assembly in Biology” given by Robijn Bruinsma given at the 2023 Summer School on Soft Matter and complex fluids.
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3 and Lecture 4. Lecture notes are available via the website of the school.

6.10   Renormalization group analysis of the defect unbinding transition

Lectures by Nobel Laureate Michael Kosterlitz on Topological Excitations in two dimensions.
From Aalto University (left) and SUMTOPO18 (right).

Problems
Coding Problems

Our aim is to make coding problems available for all chapters, including this one, by the end of 2025.

Errata