International Liquid Crystal Conference 2010: across borders and multiscales
The 23rd International Liquid Crystal Conference (ILCC) was held in the beautiful Polish city of Krakow from 11–16 July 2010. The conference was organised by the team of Professor Stanislaw Urban from Jagiellonian University, under the auspices of the International Liquid Crystal Society (ILCS) and the Polish Liquid Crystal Society. Almost 700 delegates enjoyed exciting science and splendid hospitality. We were directed around a spacious and comfortable, but topologically challenging, conference centre by a hard-working team of yellow T-shirted graduate students.
The well-chosen plenary talks exemplified the topical areas that were highlighted by the meeting. After a historical introduction and broad overview, Professor Tom Lubensky described recent research at the University of Pennsylvania on defects in liquid crystal colloid mixtures.
Twenty years ago De Gennes described the blue phases as ‘beautiful and mysterious’. Now they are undergoing a renaissance because of possible applications. Importantly, this is based on research by Professor Hirotsugu Kikuchi (Kyushu University), and his collaborators, who have shown that the region of stability of the blue phases can be greatly increased by adding polymers. Professor Kikuchi explained that the polymers migrate to the topological defects that define blue phase ordering, and can be polymerised there, thus stabilising the defect network. He described the fast response time of the electro-optic Kerr effect in polymer-stabilised blue phases, and its potential for fast response liquid crystal displays. Blue phases featured largely at the meeting with several other talks and posters devoted to their kinetics and transitions, and to attempts to dope them with colloids or nanoparticles.
Professor Ivan Smalyukh from the University of Colorado gave an inspiring talk highlighting the progress that has been made in creating and controlling designer colloidal particles: spheres, rods, platelets and even kangaroos. He described research assessing the potential of liquid crystals as host materials for self-assembled nanoparticle arrays. The goal is to design three-dimensional, tunable, optically responsive metamaterials by combining the switchable textures of liquid crystals and the surface plasmon resonance properties of the plasmonic nanoparticles. Potential applications include perfect lenses and invisibility cloaks.
Professor Ewa Gorecka, University of Warsaw, reviewed the myriad of complex phases formed by bent core molecules. She explained how the complexity and dimensionality of the phases can be tailored by molecular modification. Starting with lamellar phases, she generalised to columnar phases, and finally to the three-dimensional bi-continuous cubic phase and phases of regularly arranged molecular blocks. Dominant mechanisms leading to the structures were discussed.
Professor Peter Collings, Swarthmore College, gave an exciting talk on chromonic liquid crystals. Chromonics are bio-compatible and as this is an increasingly desired material characteristic, the research is in full swing. Liquid crystalline properties of several chromonic dye molecules, including Sunset Yellow and Bordeaux Dye, were highlighted and their common characteristics were outlined. The current knowledge on mechanisms of molecular aggregation was described and yet even more questions were raised. To list only the two main ones: what is the detailed structure of the aggregates in chromonics and is there a connection between aggregate structure and the presence of a critical temperature or critical concentration at which aggregation begins?
The work of four outstanding graduate students was acknowledged by the award of Glen Brown prizes. Their research exemplified the excellence and range of the scientific contributions at the meeting. Dr Ibon Alonso Villanueva undertook his PhD at the University of the Basque Country with Professors Cesar L. Folcia and Josu Ortega. His work relates the non-linear optical and structural properties of bent core mesogens to their underlying chemistry, showing how to design materials with large non-linear optical coefficients.
Dr Miha Ravnik described how colloidal arrays can be stabilised in nematic layers by entangling them in disclination networks. By modelling these structures using a Q-tensor Landau de Gennes free energy, Dr Ravnik has helped to design colloidal arrays that have potential for use as resonators and lasers. The research was carried out at the University of Ljubljana under the supervision of Professor Slobodan Zumer.
Dr Hao Qi, working with Professor Hegmann at the University of Manitoba, explored composites of liquid crystals and gold nanoparticles and, in particular, the effect of chiral particles on the liquid crystal textures.
The fourth prize winner, Dr Hiroyuki Yoshida, is now also interested in doping liquid crystals with nanoparticles, and he presented his work showing how the nanoparticles can be grown in situ in a liquid crystal. His thesis research, with Professor Masanori Ozaki at Osaka University, aimed at improving the optical properties of cholesterics by locally modulating the chiral ordering.
Surajit Dhara received the Michi Nakata award – a new ILCS award for outstanding post-doctoral research – for his identification of a discontinuous change in the direction of surface anchoring as a function of temperature. The transition is strongly hysteretic and this can be exploited to give bistable switching. Professor Dhara is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Hyderabad. He worked with Professor Hidea Takezoe at the Tokyo Institute of Technology as a post-doctoral researcher.
Mid-career awards recognised Professor Randall Kamien from the University of Pennsylvania for his applications of geometry and topology to the structure of unusual liquid crystal chiral phases and Professor Timothy Wilkinson, University of Cambridge, for his many and varied contributions to liquid crystal device engineering.
Professor John W. Goodby, York University, was awarded ILCS Honoured Membership for his outstanding contributions to liquid crystal science and to the community.
The Luckhurst–Samulski Prize for the best paper published in Liquid Crystals was awarded to John W. Goodby et al., for their outstanding paper ‘Molecular complexity and the control of self-organising processes’, Liq. Cryst. 2009, 36, 567–605.
For the first time in the series of ILCCs, the organisers announced as a separate theme Liquid Crystals in Teaching. The response was overwhelming, with participants even sitting on the stairs and on the floor in front of the lecturer. This highlights the potential of liquid crystals beyond science and technology.
Social events reflected the legendary Polish hospitality. Those wishing to escape the heat enjoyed a tour of the Salt Mines where the miners carved chapels from the rock salt. An organ concert in St Mary's church provided inspiring music in beautiful surroundings. The conference dinner had a folk theme and a chance to see the bucolic Polish countryside.
Click on http://www.ilcsoc.org for the new ILCS website designed by Jan Lagerwall. Each month they are displaying a liquid crystal picture of the month, together with a description of the underlying science, and lists of relevant conferences, and job advertisements in the field. Please start sending in your contributions.
A brief ILCC2010-in-images is shown in .
Figure 1. ILCC 2010 in images: (a) 684 delegates from 45 countries participated at the conference; (b) plenary talks, senior talks and award talks were presented in the Auditorium Maximum of Jagiellonian University; (c) inspiring talks and anxious-to-know participants created a vibrant and exciting atmosphere; (d) 680 posters were presented in three poster sessions; (e) organising team with chairman Professor Stanislaw Urban (right). (Photos are courtesy of Krzysztof Magda).
Finally, we look forward to the ILCC 2012 in Mainz, Germany.
Miha Ravnik and Julia M. Yeomans
Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK