High resolution transmission electron microscopy of liquid crystalline polymers

There have been two significant areas of recent advancement of high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) applied to liquid crystalline polymers. First, HRTEM was used to complement diffraction analysis for the determination of the structure of liquid crystalline polymers: a frustrated smectic-Ā, aperiodic crystals formed from the nematic phase, and several cubic structures comprising macromolecular assemblies. Second, the direct examination of defects has been accomplished for a variety of liquid crystalline phases.