Читать книгу Liquid Crystals - Iam-Choon Khoo - Страница 24

Liquid crystals, particularly nematics, behave physically very much like liquids. Owing to the random scattering of light caused by thermal fluctuations of the anisotropic constituent molecules, bulk unaligned nematic liquid crystals take on a milky appearance. They become crystal clear when confined in thin cells where the director axis of the bulk is controlled and aligned by strong anchoring forces from the cell boundaries that are treated in a variety of ways. Such surface alignment techniques and the underlying science are understandably very complex; the following discussions are intended as an introduction to some common practices.