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Table of Contents
1 Cover
4 Preface
5 1 Singular Optics of Liquid Crystal Defects 1.1. Prelude from carrots 1.2. Liquid crystals, optics and defects: a long-standing trilogy 1.3. Polarization optics of liquid crystals: basic ingredients 1.4. Liquid crystal reorientation under external fields 1.5. Customary optics from liquid crystal defects 1.6. From regular to singular optics 1.7. Advent of self-engineered singular optical elements enabled by liquid crystals defects 1.8. Singular optical functions based on defects: a decade of advances 1.9. Emerging optical functionalities enabled by liquid crystal defects 1.10. Conclusion 1.11. References
6 2 Control of Micro-Particles with Liquid Crystals 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Control of micro-particles by liquid crystal-enabled electrokinetics 2.3. Controlled dynamics of microswimmers in nematic liquid crystals 2.4. Conclusion 2.5. Acknowledgments 2.6. References
7 3 Thermomechanical Effects in Liquid Crystals 3.1. Introduction 3.2. The Ericksen–Leslie equations 3.3. Molecular dynamics simulations of the thermomechanical effect 3.4. Experimental evidence of the thermomechanical effect 3.5. The thermohydrodynamical effect 3.6. Conclusions and perspectives 3.7. References
8 4 Physics of the Dowser Texture 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Generation of the dowser texture 4.3. Flow-assisted homeotropic ⇒ dowser transition 4.4. Rheotropism 4.5. Cuneitropism, solitary 2π-walls 4.6. Electrotropism 4.7. Electro-osmosis 4.8. Dowser texture as a natural universe of nematic monopoles 4.9. Motions of dowsons in a wound up dowser field 4.10. Collisions of dowsons 4.11. Motions of dowsons in homogeneous fields 4.12. Stabilization of dowsons systems by inhomogeneous fields with defects 4.13. Dowser field submitted to boundary conditions with more complex geometries and topologies 4.14. Flow-induced bowson-dowson transformation 4.15. Instability of the dowson’s d- position in the stagnation point 4.16. Appendix 1: equation of motion of the dowser field 4.17. References
9 5 Spontaneous Emergence of Chirality 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Chirality: a historical tour 5.3. Concluding remarks 5.4. Acknowledgments 5.5. References
11 Index
List of Illustrations
1 Chapter 1Figure 1.1. Colorful arrangement of carrots recalling an orientational defect wi...Figure 1.2. (a) Lehmann posing close to his crystallization microscope. (b and c...Figure 1.3. Illustration of the three liquid crystal phases appearing in this ch...Figure 1.4. Polarization ellipses and their characteristic angles (ψ, χ). Linear...Figure 1.5. (a) Definition of the director in the spherical coordinate system. (...Figure 1.6. Illustration of the Mauguin regime for a “long-pitch” left-handed ch...Figure 1.7. Circular Bragg reflection for a right-handed cholesteric. Typically,...Figure
