Meet the editor

Pankaj K. Choudhury has held academic positions in India, Canada, Japan, and Malaysia. From 2003 to 2009, he was a professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, Malaysia. Thereafter, he served as a professor at the Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. His research interests lie in complex mediums, fiber optic devices, optical sensors, and metamaterials. He has published

more than 260 research papers and 22 book chapters and has edited and co-edited 9 books. He is the section editor of Optik and the editor in chief of the Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. He is a fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Optica.

Abdel-Baset M. A. Ibrahim received a BSc in Physics from Al-Zagazig University, Egypt, in 1998; an MSc in Quantum Optics from the University of Malaya, in 2000; and a Ph.D. in Nonlinear Optics from the University Sains Malaysia, in 2009. Since 2010 he has been a senior lecturer at the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. He previously worked in the Telekom Research and Development industry in Malaysia. Dr. Ibrahim

has more than thirty publications in journals and books to his credit. He is a regular member of Optica.

Contents

*and Faryal Idrees*

*by Zixin Zhao*

**Preface XI**

**Chapter 1 1**

**Chapter 2 5**

**Chapter 3 23**

**Chapter 4 61**

**Chapter 5 89**

**Chapter 6 107**

Overview of Liquid Crystal Research: Computational Advancements,

Phase Transitions and Structure of Liquid Crystalline Cellulose Ether

Molecular Simulation of Cholesteric Liquid-Crystal Polyesteramides: Conformational and Structure Analysis by Rietveld Refinement *by Mercedes Pérez Méndez, José Fayos Alcañiz and Marc Meunier*

High Precision Optical Wavefront Generation Using Liquid Crystal

Introductory Chapter: Liquid Crystals and Applications *by Pankaj Kumar Choudhury and Abdel-Baset M.A. Ibrahim*

*by Maria Malik, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Wajeehah Shahid, Syed Zaheer Ud Din, Mujtaba Ikram, Nadia Anwar, Samiah Shahid* 

Challenges, Future Prospects and Applications

Solutions in a Magnetic Field and in Its Absence

*by Sergey Vshivkov and Elena Rusinova*

Spatial Light Modulator (LC-SLM)

The LCD Interfacing and Programming *by Dahlan Sitompul and Poltak Sihombing*

## Contents


Preface

Liquid crystals have been in the research limelight for the last couple of decades because of the exotic electromagnetic properties of these exhibits, which can be altered under certain external stimuli. In general, these exist in three different phases, namely the nematic, smectic and cholesteric phases, which are distinguished based on the orientation of molecules, termed as the director. Interestingly the property of the director can be altered due to external influence (such as electric/ magnetic fields), which confirms varieties of potential applications of these in our

The scope of this book is limited to providing a glimpse of the basic knowledge and properties of liquid crystals followed by the discussions of possible phase transition characteristics of certain kinds of liquid crystalline polymers through simulations. Also, the use of liquid crystals in field sensing and some of the optical applications are also discussed, apart from the basic understanding of the interfacing of liquid crystal displays. To be more specific, Malik et al. in Chapter 2 discuss the fundamentals of liquid crystal mediums emphasizing right from the very basics, such as the molecular patterns in the different phases of this. Also, they put a cursory glance at the advanced classification of liquid crystals. Following these, the authors touch upon some of the novel applications of liquid crystals and the current challenges in the advancement of research in the relevant direction. Overall, this chapter simply provides a glimpse of liquid crystals, which serves as the introduction to these mediums before proceeding to further reading of the advanced research themes in

The phase of liquid crystals remains the primary factor to determine the physical and/or chemical properties, and this can be altered depending on the external stimuli. In Chapter 3, the authors touch upon the phase transition aspect of liquid crystalline polymer systems under the influence of an external magnetic field using the phase diagrams that categorize their chemical structures. The authors report the process of self-assembly of liquid crystal nanomolecules in solutions exhibits a packet mechanism, which depends on the concentration of the polymer in the solution. Overall, the chapter explains well the effects of magnetic field on the

molecular structure of liquid crystals resulting in a phase transition.

good validation of the theoretical understanding.

Cholesteric liquid crystals exhibit the helical orientation of the director and

Chapter 5 by Zixin Zhao focuses on the use of liquid crystal-based spatial light modulators in the generation of an optical wavefront. The nonlinear phase response

constitute an extremely important class owing to the chiral behavior that finds wide applications in display and other sensing technologies. In Chapter 4, Méndez et al. explore the synthesis and characterization of cholesteric liquid-crystal polyesteramides exploiting the molecular simulations. Within the context, they perform the conformational and structural analyses of polyesteramides. The results of the phase analyses in the cases of four different possible helical conformers demonstrate fairly

everyday life as well as advanced systems of technological use.

the relevant direction.
