Performance assessment of a liquid crystal multichannel photonic space-switch

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Fracasso ◽  
L. Noirie ◽  
J. L. de Bougrenet de la Tocnaye ◽  
M. Razzak ◽  
E. Daniel

In the agriculture field, the method of irrigation and its proper usage is more important and it is well known that a very economical and efficient method is drip irrigation. The continuous monitoring of the soil and weather condition has to be done by the farmer in favour of growth of crops in conventional drip irrigation system. In this proposed system, the soil and weather condition of the field are monitored by the moisture as well as temperature sensor. The values from the temperature and moisture sensors are sensed and the signal is sent to the Arduino IDE controller which is powered by solar energy and thus the present values are compared with predefined values. According to value of the temperature and moisture, the crops can be supplied with the required amount of water. In the liquid crystal display, the sensed values of the temperature and moisture will be displayed and the user can receive the data through the GSM module.


Author(s):  
K.J. Ihn ◽  
R. Pindak ◽  
J. A. N. Zasadzinski

A new liquid crystal (called the smectic-A* phase) that combines cholesteric twist and smectic layering was a surprise as smectic phases preclude twist distortions. However, the twist grain boundary (TGB) model of Renn and Lubensky predicted a defect-mediated smectic phase that incorporates cholesteric twist by a lattice of screw dislocations. The TGB model for the liquid crystal analog of the Abrikosov phase of superconductors consists of regularly spaced grain boundaries of screw dislocations, parallel to each other within the grain boundary, but rotated by a fixed angle with respect to adjacent grain boundaries. The dislocations divide the layers into blocks which rotate by a discrete amount, Δθ, given by the ratio of the layer spacing, d, to the distance between grain boundaries, lb; Δθ ≈ d/lb (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
B.D. Terris ◽  
R. J. Twieg ◽  
C. Nguyen ◽  
G. Sigaud ◽  
H. T. Nguyen

We have used a force microscope in the attractive, or noncontact, mode to image a variety of surfaces. In this mode, the microscope tip is oscillated near its resonant frequency and shifts in this frequency due to changes in the surface-tip force gradient are detected. We have used this technique in a variety of applications to polymers, including electrostatic charging, phase separation of ionomer surfaces, and crazing of glassy films.Most recently, we have applied the force microscope to imaging the free surfaces of chiral liquid crystal films. The compounds used (Table 1) have been chosen for their polymorphic variety of fluid mesophases, all of which exist within the temperature control range of our force microscope.


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