Vignettes from the world of liquid crystals

Department Colloquia

Speaker: Peter Palffy-Muhoray, Kent State University
Date & Time: November 27, 2014, 16:00 - 17:00
Location: UBC, Hennings 201
Local Contact: Bill Unruh
Intended Audience: Undergraduate

Liquid crystals, discovered some 125 years ago, are orientationally ordered soft materials. Although they have received considerable attention – much of it due to their potential for applications in display devices – they continue to astonish, puzzle and delight. In this talk, I will describe some unusual phenomena in liquid crystalline systems which originate in orientational order. I will discuss ideas about the underlying physics, and indicate intriguing problems that remain unsolved.