Research project: Luckhurst: Thermotropic Biaxial Nematic Liquid Crystals
The common nematic phase currently used in display applications has uniaxial symmetry. However, Marvin Freiser has shown, on the basis of molecular field calculations that, in addition to this uniaxial phase, there should also be a nematic phase with biaxial symmetry. This prediction has stimulated much interest in the discovery of this phase and not only because of its potential applications.