The orderly beauty of liquid crystals

They're in everywhere in our screens, but what are liquid crystals? 🖥️ How are they liquid? Or crystalline? In this video, we discover the colourful physics of ordered fluids!
↓ More infos and links in the description! ↓

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LINKS:


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RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

Patrick Oswald, Pawel Pieranski, Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystals, Gordon and Breach (2000),

Bill Hammack, LCD Monitor Teardown on the engineerguy channel (2011)

Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016,

Teresa Lopez-Leon, Les cristaux liquides : quand l’ordre et le désordre se rencontrent, groupe Traces video (in French, 2017),

Julien Bobroff, Microscope Polarisant, La Physique Autrement video (in French, 2016),

Sophie Norvez's lectures on liquid crystals at ESPCI Paris

Teresa Lopez-Leon's introductory seminars/lectures on liquid crystals at ESPCI Paris

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STRUCTURE OF THE VIDEO:

00:00 What's a liquid crystal?
01:36 Elasticity of liquid crystals
02:00 Liquid crystals and polarized light
03:21 Birefringence
04:12 Liquid crystals in a polarizing microscope
04:56 Liquid crystal displays
06:09 Liquid crystals and topology
07:18 Conclusion

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CREDITS:

Host:
Julie Godefroid

Director:
Hoon Kwon

Writer:
Guillaume Durey

Science supervisor:
Teresa Lopez-Leon

Animator:
Benjamin Alardin

Sound mixer:
Valentin Zorgnotti

Editor:
Guillaume Durey

Studio, visual identity:
Juliette Nier

Theme music:
Pierre David

Production:
Guillaume Durey, Mathias Kasiulis, Quentin Magdelaine

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Collective Effects in Soft Matter team, Gulliver laboratory,

Paul Boniface, Espace des Sciences Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, for his valuable advice,

Alexandre Darmon, former PhD student in the Gulliver lab, for his video of a phase transition in cholesteric liquid crystal shells.

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The Lutetium Project is a PSL students’ initiative conducted as part of IDEX ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL and funded by:

[TehnbA]

5:40 that finally explains why dark mode/black screens consume more energy than white screens in LCD (while its the opposite on led). I knew that LCD used more energy when displaying black because my gameboy battery light would turn red everytime a black screen appeared, but never knew why. Great video!

[batzlat]

I've watched dozens of videos on how LCD displays work. Only now, after watching this video, did I really understand it! Great video, thanks!

[jamescooney]

This video is absolutely incredible. That was so informative and well presented!

[plumnuts]

absolutely incredible how much i learned from this low-key video. everybody should see this. i'm talking core curriculum.

[AntiheroYouth]

4:55 Not sure implying I’m going to disappear or my defects will disappear. Both are true, I guess.

[gegedepardi]

C'est une approche très théorique et universitaire des cristaux liquides, un petit show des différentes interfaces des années 60, utilisant les cristaux liquides aurais apporté une petite approche ingénieur au sujet. Surtout que niveau ingé lcd avant le pixel c'est très "cru" très visuel comme technologie. C'est plus simple que nos lcd d'aujourd'hui on peu les décortiquer et apprendre comment l'ingénieur à adapter les cristaux liquides sans notre tendance à miniaturiser. Je critique parceque la vidéo est quasiment parfaite c'est incroyable. Trop trop fort la qualité, la maîtrise du sujet, tout est carré. C'est vraiment de la vidéo de qualité félicitations !

[baldpipesmoker]

It's amazing what can be done with liquid crystals. An LCD screen is more complicated than I thought. Thank you for explaining!

[chandankunal]

Awesome work! Super well explained. I always look forward to your videos!

[davidzamora]

Amazing video. I would like to watch another video on different liquid crystals or even taking a little depper understanding of the ones you showed us.

[cristianconstantin]

Great video, you explained the concepts very well and the animations were right on point.
I have to point out a mistake at 1:54 - the Bend configuration is the one on the left and the Splay configuration is the one on the right, as per Peter Colling's book Liquid Crystals
(Edit: I was wrong because of misinterpretation)

[samuelcarvalho]

Outstanding Video. This video ought to have more views and this channel ought to have more subscribers!

[JizzontheToilet]

this is really intesteresting. You presented it really well, probably would have taken 3 college classes to grasp what you did in 8 minutes.

[lelsewherelelsewhere]

Really great video!! Going to use this as my go to when explaining to others.

[newgoogleaccount]

Came from LTT, great explanation in one video.

[thirandieamaratunga]

Wonderful work! Helps understand a complex concept in a simple, intriguing way.

[parimisreekar]

Lucid and accessible presentation. Helped with introduction to LC polymers.

[omsingharjit]

It feels Awesome watching your presentation

[geckolantern]

This video is incredibly clear and concise. Thank you!

[waleolapo]

Thank you for the thorough explanation

[thenoodlesaresoggy]

thank you, thank you so much! I've had trouble understanding what's up with liquid crystals. Thankfully, I found this! Saved me from a lot of probable breakdowns.