Handbook of Liquid Crystals—Volume I (eBook)

Liquid Crystals are a state of matter sharing properties that are usually associated with both solids and liquids. Their study belongs to wider field of soft condensed matter physics, an area growing in importance because of the new physics being discovered and the possibilities of various technological applications being developed. Liquid crystals continue to have a revolutionary technological impact and consistently pose new challenges of basic understanding. While the experimental side of liquid crystal research is very well developed, theoretical understanding has lagged, and this volume fills a gap in the published literature in terms of rigorous treatment of mathematical and computer modeling approaches.

Volume I of this handbook deals with the physical foundations and fundamental aspects of liquid crystals, addressing their physical properties, measurement techniques, and various types. Overall, this handbook serves as the ultimate scholarly guide for researchers, scientists, and engineers seeking to unlock the full potential of liquid crystals. It offers a comprehensive understanding of these materials and their diverse applications, empowering readers to navigate the complex intricacies of liquid crystal science and technology.

The main focus of Prof. Singh's research activities has been to develop and apply theoretical methods including computer simulations for the understanding of molecular liquids, liquid crystals, far- infrared absorption spectra in dense fluids, and computer simulations methodology, resulting in many important results for liquid crystals and statistical physics. Among his key achievements is a first principle molecular theory based on the density functional formalism for the elastic properties of molecular ordered phases (liquid crystals, plastic crystals and crystalline solids), which has been implemented for the nematic, smectic A and biaxial nematic phases. One area of Prof. Singh's most sustained activities has been towards understanding the phase stability, orientational ordering, and transition properties of achiral and chiral (ferroelectric and antiferroelectric) liquid crystals. The role of intermolecular interactions and external perturbations (pressure and electric field) on their behavior has been analyzed. His group has also performed computer simulations for the ordering kinetics in nematic liquid crystals, resulting in very crucial information about the domains coarsening.

Prof. Singh's current research activities focus on unexplored problems related to MC/MD simulations for phase ordering dynamics in nematic liquid crystals and phase diagrams and transition properties of liquid crystals, and the structure and properties of FLCs, AFLCs, SSFLCs, bent core, and polymer dispersed liquid crystals. Recently, he has undertaken experimental work in the area of polymer dispersed liquid crystals and liquid crystals in confined geometry, producing very interesting results. His group has also carried out extensive work to address the question how dispersion of non-mesogenic materials (nanomaterials, polymers, dyes, etc.) in host LCs influences the properties of pristine LC and shown that dispersed system is more useful for LC-based devices.