Pierre-Gilles de Gennes: Beautiful and mysterious liquid crystals

Publication date: Available online 30 January 2019Source: Comptes Rendus PhysiqueAuthor(s): Pawel PieranskiAbstractThe articles of Pierre-Gilles de Gennes on liquid crystals published between 1968 and 1972 in the Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences appear today as models of conciseness. On barely three pages, with a few words and equations, de Gennes was able to give answers to enigmas posed by strange and often beautiful phenomena occurring in liquid crystals. Thread-like disclinations in nematics and cholesterics, dislocations in smectics or milky aspect of nematics due to light scattering are a few examples of them. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was able to examine them from heights accessible only to him, to explain them and also to find how they are related to phenomena occurring in other ordered systems. His article on “Singularities permitted in ordered phases” laid the foundation for future work on the classification of topological defects. Our aim is to illustrate issues raised by de Gennes by examples taken from very recent experiments. By doing this, we prove that de Gennes' achievements remain valid and valuable today.RésuméLes articles de Pierre-Gilles de Gennes sur les cristaux liquides publiés entre 1968 et 1972 dans les Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences frappent par leur concision. Sur trois pages à peine, avec peu de mots et d'équations, de Gennes esquissait les solutions d'énigmes posées par les étranges et souvent beaux phénomènes ob...

Source: Comptes Rendus Physique - January 30, 2019 Category: Physics Source Type: research