Liquid Crystals

The latest edition of the leading resource on the properties and applications of liquid crystals

In the newly revised Third Edition of Liquid Crystals, Professor Iam Choon Khoo delivers a comprehensive treatment of the fundamentals and applied aspects of optical physics, light scattering, electro-optics, and non-linear optics of liquid crystals. The book's opening chapters include coverage of the foundational physics and optical properties of liquid crystals and lead to more advanced content on the display, photonics and nonlinear optics applications of liquid crystals.

New topics, including photonic crystals, metamaterials, ultrafast nonlinear optics, and fabrication methods for massive cholesteric and blue phase liquid crystals are discussed at length. Analytical methods and experimental observations of nonlinear light propagation through liquid crystalline and anisotropic materials and devices are also discussed.

Liquid Crystals offers an insightful and unique treatment of the nonlinear optics of liquid crystals. New and expanded sections round out this new edition and add to the most up-to-date resource on this topic available today. The book also includes:

• A thorough introduction to liquid crystals, including their molecular structures, chemical compositions, order parameter, phase transition, and free energies.
• Practical discussions of nematic, cholesteric, smectic, and ferroelectric liquid crystals, and explorations of linear and nonlinear light scattering in these phases.
• A detailed quantum mechanical treatment of the linear and nonlinear electronic optical response of liquid crystal molecules to optical fields.
• A self-contained discussion of the fundamentals of nonlinear optics/photonics and comprehensive review of all liquid crystalline materials-based nonlinear optical processes and applications.

The latest edition of Liquid Crystals is an indispensable resource for graduate students, professors, research scientists and engineers in industrial or government laboratories. It's also an ideal reference for anyone seeking a one-stop textbook with complete coverage of the optical, electro-optical, and non-linear optical properties and processes of liquid crystals.