From Chiral Molecules to Chiral Liquid Crystal Phases 

During the last decade, the topic of chirality and symmetry in physical sciences has become extremely important, particularly as nature itself is often described as being “handed” or chiral. In liquid crystalline systems many important properties are known to be related to chirality, for instance chirality is reflected in helical structures, in special cases of strongly twisted systems novel frustrated phases may appear such as Blue phases and Twist Grain Boundary phases. In addition, many modern high technology applications, such as ferroelectric displays depend entirely on the presence of chirality in the liquid-crystalline materialsemployed.