Microwaves, Millimeter Wave and Terahertz Liquid Crystals

This book is the first ever monograph on nematic liquid crystals for microwaves, millimeter waves and terahertz waves. It presents the first hand independent studies on nematic liquid crystals for microwaves, millimeter waves and terahertz waves. This book opens with an introduction to generic liquid crystals and a retrospective review about nematic liquid crystals in microwaves, millimeter waves and terahertz waves. Attention is then focused on the latest in-house progress on microwave, millimeter wave and terahertz nematic liquid crystals. Synthesis and characterization of novel nematic liquid crystals are first presented, followed by indigenous technologies to manufacture functional nematic liquid crystal devices for microwaves, millimeter waves and terahertz waves. A few self-developed representative advanced functional devices are shown to demonstrate the promising perspective of liquid crystals for not only microwaves, millimeter waves and terahertz waves but also many other non-display applications. The presented studies will attract scientists, engineers and students from various disciplines, such as materials, chemical, electrical, biological, and biomedical engineering. The book is intended for undergraduates, graduates, researchers, professionals and industrial practitioners who are interested in developing novel liquid crystals and further extending liquid crystals beyond display.

Prof. Anyong Qing received Bachelor of Engineering degree from Tsinghua University in 1993, Master of Engineering degree from Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1995, and Ph. D. degree from Southwest Jiaotong University in 1997. He was a lecturer and post-doctoral fellow at Shanghai University from September 1997 to June 1998, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from June 1998 to June 2000, a member of scientific staff at University of Kassel, Germany from July 2000 to May 2001, and a RF design engineer at VS Electronics Pte Ltd, Singapore from June 2001 to September 2001. He joined Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore in September 2001 as a research scientist and was promoted as a senior research scientist in January 2010. After granted National Young Thousand Talent professorship in September 2011, he joined University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in November 2012. He is currently chairing Department of Electrotechnical Electronics, Southwest Jiaotong University. 

Prof. Qing has involved in various areas of research in terahertz theory & technology, photoacoustic theory & technology, compressive sensing, natural optimization, computational acoustics & electromagnetics, inverse acoustic & electromagnetic scattering, electromagnetic composite materials, antennas & antenna arrays, millimeter wave & and terahertz imaging, biomedical imaging. He has been very active in industrializing millimeter wave and terahertz technology for security, medical, and industrial applications. He is the principal investigator or co-principal investigator for more than 20 projects, including National Key R&D Plan, National Young Thousand Talent Grant, Foreign Talent in Culture and Education Grant, Defense Research and Technology Office, Singapore, Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency, European Atomic Energy Agency, National Science and Technology Board, Singapore, Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of China, etc. Prof. Qing has authored two books, 1 invited book chapter, more than 180 peer reviewed journal and conference papers, 15 patents, and 1 registered software.

Prof. Qing is very active in voluntary services as editors, guest editors, technical program committee members, organizers, reviewers for funding agencies, universities, institutions, journals, and conferences. He has been appointed as an associate editor for Radio Science in 2017. He has also been invited to give numerous talks in different institutions and conferences.

Prof. Qing received numerous awards including Top 2% Scientist Worldwide, National Young Thousand Talent professorship, Sichuan Thousand Talent professorship, Chengdu Talent entrepreneurship, Changzhou Talent entrepreneurship, Xuzhou Talent entrepreneurship, Sichuan Province Scientific and Technological Progress Award, Long Service Award, National University of Singapore, and so on. Prof. Qing is a senior member of IEEE since 2005, a member of Material Research Society Singapore, and a member of Chinese Institute of Electronics.

Dr. Yizhe Zhao received his Bachelor of Engineering degree from Chengdu University of Technology in 2014, Master of Engineering and Ph. D. degrees from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2016 and 2019, respectively. He was a post-doctoral research fellow at National University of Singapore from 2019 to 2023. Since 2023, he has been an associate research fellow with the State Key Laboratory of Optical Technologies on Nano-Fabrication and Micro-Engineering, Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China.

His current research includes laser microprocessing & nanofabrication, metamaterials, metasurfaces, liquid crystal devices, and tunable microwave devices and antennas.

Prof. Zhiyong Zhang is a professor at Wuhan Polytechnic University. He has been engaged in synthesis and application of organic photoelectronic information materials for thirty years. Prof. Zhang has involved in various areas of research in display of fluorinated liquid crystal, optical high refractive index liquid crystal materials, high refractive index liquid crystal optical thin film resin materials, high optical anisotropy nano oxide composite resin materials, and liquid crystal optoelectronic materials and environmental materials. He is the principal investigator or co-principal investigator for about 60 projects, including Ministry of Science and Technology, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Information Fund, National Development and Reform Fund, etc. Prof. Zhang has authored 125 peer reviewed journal and conference papers and 28 patents. His current research interests include nematic phase liquid crystal materials used in microwave phase shifter and synthesis of high refractive index nano-optical resin materials.