Abstract

It has long been known that thin films of cholesteric liquid crystals subject to a shear will exhibit a blue shift in the color that they reflect. In this article a molecular structure that could explain this shift is postulated. Using Mauguin’s continuum model of a cholesteric liquid crystal, the governing electromagnetic field equations are formulated. An approximate, analytic solution is obtained by a perturbation technique. The results are consistent with the available experimental data.

© 1979 Optical Society of America

Theory of light reflection by cholesteric liquid crystals possessing a pitch gradient

Leslie E. Hajdo and A. Cemal Eringen
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69(7) 1017-1023 (1979)

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S. V. Subramanyam
Appl. Opt. 10(2) 317-320 (1971)

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R. H. Good and A. Karali
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 11(7) 2145-2155 (1994)

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H. B. Lu, J. Xing, C. Wei, J. Q. Sha, G. B Zhang, G. Q. Lv, J. Zhu, and L. Z. Qiu
Opt. Mater. Express 7(11) 4163-4170 (2017)