Liquid Crystals: Physical Properties and Nonlinear Optical Phenomena

An excellent professional reference and a superior upper-level student text, this landmark book offers readers the first comprehensive treatment of all the basic principles underlying the unique physical and optical properties of liquid crystals. Written by a noted pioneer in the nonlinear optics of liquid crystals, it also provides an authoritative, in-depth discussion of the mechanisms and theoretical principles behind all major nonlinear optical phenomena occurring in liquid crystals.

• Includes an exhaustive treatment of the physical properties and molecular and chemical structures of the thermotropic liquid crystals
• Examines the theoretical aspects of their isotropic and liquid crystalline phases, including order parameters, elastic constant, Free energy, viscosity and flows, refractive indices, and birefringence
• Covers new materials such as polymeric liquid crystals, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, dyedoped liquid crystals, and ferroelectric liquid crystals
• Delineates all known mechanisms for optical nonlinearities in the principal mesophases of liquid crystals
• Provides a comprehensive summary of all major nonlinear optical phenomena observed in liquid crystals to date

  Order Parameter, Phase Transition, and Free Energies.
  Nematic Liquid Crystals.
  Cholesteric, Smectic, and Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals.
  Light Scatterings.
  Laser-Induced Nonelectronic Optical Nonlinearities in Liquid Crystals.
  Thermal, Density, and Other Nonelectronic Nonlinear Mechanisms.
  Electronic Optical Nonlinearities.
  Introduction to Nonlinear Optics.
  Nonlinear Optical Phenomena Observed in Liquid Crystals.
  Index.

  About the author IAM-CHOON KHOO, PhD, is Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Electrical Engineering. For his pioneering work in nonlinear optics of liquid crystals and nonlinear optics in general, Dr. Khoo was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1988. A senior member of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, he chaired the Society’s Nonlinear Optics Technical Committee from 1992 to 1995.