The 15th international conference on ferroelectric liquid crystals in Prague: challenges in polar self-assembling systems

摘要

Two years have passed rather quickly and researchers of polar liquid crystal systems met again at the traditional biennial Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Conference (FLC). The first conference in this series was held in 1987 in Archachon in France, 13 years after the discovery of ferroelectric liquid crystals, the first polar liquid crystal materials that were synthesised following a brilliant theoretical consideration of R. Meyer. In the following decennia, new polar liquid crystals with more and more phases with more and more complex structures were discovered. Although liquid crystals are locally still liquids, the complexity and beauty of structures (Figure 1) has seriously surprised the researchers.