Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals

Book excerpt: Based on graduate lectures given by the authors, Smectic and Columnar Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments examines lamellar (smectic) and columnar liquid crystals, which, in addition to orientational order, possess 1D, 2D or 3D positional order. Topics include rheology and plasticity, ferroelectricity, analogies with superconductors, hexatic order and 2D-melting, equilibrium shapes, facetting, and the Mullins-Sekerka instability, as well as phase transitions in free films and membrane vibrations. Nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals are covered by the authors in a separate volume entitled Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals: Concepts and Physical Properties Illustrated by Experiments.