000			01500nam a22002057a 4500
008			200901b1993 ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780198517856
082			_a530.429 GEN-P
100			_aGennes, P. G. De
245			_aPhysics of liquid crystals / _cP. G. de Gennes and J. Prost
250			_a2nd ed.
260			_aUK _bOxford University Press _c1993
300			_a597 p.
365			_aGBP _b72.00
500			_aThis new edition covers the main properties of nematics, cholesterics, and smectics and columnar phases, particularly the symmetry and the mechanical and optical characteristics of each phase. The latter includes some applications to display systems. De Gennes won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Physics. New chapters describe the main types and properties of liquid crystals in terms of the new phases discovered since the middle of the 1970s, and advances in the understanding of local order and the nature of the isotropic to nematic transition. There is an extensive discussion of the symmetry, and macroscopic and dynamic properties of smectics and columnar phases and their defects, illustrated with numerous descriptions of experimental arrangements. The final chapter is devoted to phase transitions in smectics, including the celebrated analogy between smectic A and superconductors. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on order-of-magnitude considerations.
650			_aLiquid crystals
650			_aNematics
650			_aMicroscopic
650			_aCholesterics
999			_c65852 _d65852