Liquid Crystals
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Liquid Crystals
File:800px-LCD RGB.jpg
LCD screen close up showing how colours are made on a white background. R is seen red, G green and B blue. The letter R has the blue and green elements off and the red on, resulting the Red colour. The white backgroud is a result of all colors on.
Liquid crystalline materials have optical properties that are intermediate between perfectly ordered crystals and completely unordered liquids. The molecules involved are able to refract light differently depending on their orientation. This can be changed by magnetism, by an electrical field, or by changing temperature.
Liquid crystals are widely used for electronic displays, TVs and various temperature and pressure sensitive materials. In this introduction to liquid cyrstals we will apply ideas including index of refraction, polarizability, crystal lattices and intermolecular forces.
See Case Western LC website [1]
See Case Western Virtual Lab [2]
See Wikipedia on liquid crystals [3]
References
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