The Delta- and Lambda-isomerism of octahedral metal complexes is employed as a source of chirality for inducing chiral nematic phases. By applying a wide range of chiral metal complexes as a dopant, it has been found that tris(beta-diketonato)metal(III) complexes exhibit an extremely high value of helical twisting power. The mechanism of induction of the chiral nematic phase is postulated on th...

tering and the polymer dispersed liquid crystal display. (E) 194. "The Quartz Watch with Digital Readout," H. R. Crane, The Physics Teacher 32(5), 298-299 (1994). This article describes the operation of a twisted nematic display and is written for high school and college physics educators. (E) 195. "Liquid-Crystal Displays: Molecules at Work," G. P. Crawford and R. J. Ondris-Crawford, Physics E...

Chitin is one of the most abundant biomaterials in nature, with 10(10) tons produced annually as hierarchically organized nanofibril fillers to reinforce the exoskeletons of arthropods. This green and cheap biomaterial has attracted great attention due to its potential application to reinforce biomedical materials. Despite that, its practical use is limited since the extraction of chitin nanofi...

In a recent study, we found that nematic liquid crystals (N-LCs) doped with chiral (S)-naproxenfunctionalized dodecane thiolate protected gold nanoclusters (Au2, Au3) or non-chiral alkyl thiolate protected Au clusters (Au1) produce thin film textures with characteristic uniform stripe patterns separated by areas of homeotropic alignment. While these textures closely resemble textures commonly o...

Nematic braids are reconfigurable knots and links formed by the disclination loops that entangle colloidal particles dispersed in a nematic liquid crystal. We focus on entangled nematic disclinations in thin twisted nematic layers stabilized by 2D arrays of colloidal particles that can be controlled with laser tweezers. We take the experimentally assembled structures and demonstrate the corresp...

A bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal display based on dual frequency driving electronics has been demonstrated. By using special combinations of alignment layers and liquid crystals, bistability can be achieved readily with cell gaps as large as 5μm.

Template synthesis based on the self-assembly of lyotropic liquid crystals offers access to mesoporous solids with high specific surface areas and periodic structures. Incorporating mesopores (i.e., pores ranging from 2 to 50 nm in diameter) into carbonaceous materials may be advantageous for certain applications, including the adsorption of large molecules, electrochemical double-layer capacit...

We describe a new 1 + 1 dimensional N = (2, 2) vector multiplet that naturally couples to semi chiral superfields in the sense that the gauged supercovariant derivative algebra is only consistent with imposing covariantly semi chiral superfield constraints. It has the advantages that its prepotentials shift by semi chiral superfields under gauge transformations. We also see that the multiplet r...

We found that multiple circular walls (MCW) can be generated on a thin film of a nematic liquid crystal through a spiral scanning of a focused IR laser. The ratios between radii of adjacent rings of MCW were almost constant. These constant ratios can be explained theoretically by minimization of the Frank elastic free energy of nematic medium. The director field on a MCW exhibits chiral symmetr...