This work is intended to be a brief introduction to smectic A and chiral smectic A liquid crystals and current research topics focusing on chiral smectic A liquid crystalline membranes. We derive the elastic free energies of smectic A and chiral smectic A phases, as well as the surface energies...

A generalized model taking into account the photoisomerization influence on the nematic ordering is presented. This generalized theory is used to investigate the effect of the nonextensivity on the concentration dependence of the long-range order parameter. The q-dependent variation of the...

The present paper considers a biaxial nematogenic lattice model, involving particles of D2h symmetry, whose centres of mass are associated with a three-dimensional simple-cubic lattice; the pair potential is isotropic in orientation space, restricted to nearest neighbours, and has the simplified...

The second rank alignment tensor characterizing the preferential orientation of rod-like or disc-like molecules can easily be detected via the birefringence associated with it. The third rank tensor specifying a local short range order with tetrahedral symmetry, as expected for water, on the...

We apply fractal analysis to study the birefringence textures of lyotropic lamellar liquid crystal system (water/cethylpyridinium chloride/decanol). Birefringence texture morphologies are important as they provide information on the molecular ordering as well as defect structures and therefore...

The nematic–isotropic phase transition is investigated for a sample in the shape of a slab of thickness d, using a self-consistent model. The interacting potential is given by a sum of the direct interaction of a given nematic molecule with the substrate and of one with the other nematic...

The equilibrium tilt angle profile in a cell limited by two concentric cylinders filled with nematic liquid crystals is determined for strong homeotropic anchoring at the surfaces. The anchoring condition is such that the nematic director is perpendicular to the cylinder axes and a radial...

The numerical solution of the nonlocal kinetic equation allows to simulate heavy ion reactions around Fermi energy. The expansion velocity and density profile show specific radial dependence which can be described with a Tsallis exponent of q=53. This might be considered as an indication of a...

We report here the mean field (MF) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation study of a nematogenic lattice model; it involves particles possessing D2h symmetry, whose centres of mass are associated with a two-dimensional square lattice, while particle orientations belong to ordinary three-dimensional space;...