Liquid Crystal Lab Research
Crosby Sperling, Lani Fuller, Zach Sailer and
Josh Fankhauser assembled in the Liquid Crystal Lab.
During the summers of 2011 and 2012, nine physics and chemistry students researched the properties of liquid crystals, famous for their use in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) found in nearly all portable electronic devices with screens. A liquid crystal is a phase of matter that is fluid but has a more complex structure.
Students seek to understand the formation and structure of these phases by modeling their behavior using both analytic theory and a statistical algorithm. They also measure electrical and optical properties as the temperature and applied electric fields change. The sensitivity of liquid crystals to light and electricity are the basis for applications like LCDs.
Students created liquid crystal cells for investigation, carried out experimental measurements, analyzed data and wrote computer code for simulations. Work from their efforts was published in the peer-reviewed research journal Liquid Crystals and presented in multiple venues including a Physics Department colloquium in 2011, the College of Science and Mathematics Student Research Conference in 2012, and the 2012 meeting of the California-Nevada section of the American Physical Society hosted at Cal Poly in fall 2012.