The demand for liquid crystals with better display parameters and lower power consumption has stimulated much research into their properties and characterization. A large team of over 50 leading researchers from the USA, Europe and Japan have focused their expertise to extract and review data on a wide range of properties of nematics, including those which are essential to the development of all types of liquid crystal device. Where appropriate these properties are also explained with expert commentary. The book is fully illustrated and structured for reference.