Polarization Microscope Pictures of Liquid Crystals
All pictures are copyright by Oleg Lavrentovich

Click on image to see enlarged photo. 

	Thin Nematic Layer on Isotropic Substrate			Thin Nematic Layer on Isotropic Substrate
	Point Defects (Schlieren Texture of Nematic Film)			A Pair of Point Defects
	Thin Nematic Layer on Isotropic Substrate			Thin Nematic Layer on Isotropic Substrate
	Wall Defects			Hybrid Aligned Nematic Film
	Hybrid Aligned Nematic Film			Hybrid Aligned Nematic Film
	Smectic A Droplet Suspended in Isotropic Matrix
	Polarizing-microscopy texture of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal between two glass plates (gap thickness 10 micron). The nematic liquid crystal phase is formed by a water solution of disodium cromoglycate, an antiasthmatic drug, also known under the trade name INTAL. The perfect alignment of director is distorted by air bubbles trapped in the liquid crystal matrix. Uncrossed polarizers, the angle between the polarizer and analyzer is 70 degrees.
	Three Images at Left: Polarizing-microscopy texture of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal between two glass plates (gap thickness 10 micron). The nematic liquid crystal phase is formed by a water solution of disodium cromoglycate, an antiasthmatic drug, also known under the trade name INTAL. The director is uniformly aligned along the direction of light polarization. The perfect alignment of director is distorted by air bubbles trapped in the liquid crystal matrix. Under the microscope, the dark domains of uniform liquid crystal and air bubbles are separated by bright birefringent boundaries with strongly distorted director. Crossed polarizer and analyzer.

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