Abstract
For light propagating along its optic axis, the cholesteric liquid crystal possesses a very high optical rotatory power, usually a few orders of magnitude larger than that of an ordinary optically active liquid. When the wavelength of the light in the medium is equal to the pitch P of the helical structure, Bragg reflection takes place. The reflected light is strongly circularly polarized; one circular component is almost totally reflected over a spectral range of some 100 Å while the other passes through practically unchanged. In the neighborhood of the region of reflection, the rotatory dispersion is anomalous and the sign of the rotation is opposite on opposite sides of the reflected band. The behavior is not unlike that of an optically active molecule in the vicinity of an absorption, except that in this case the anomalous rotatory dispersion is present even when the molecules are nonabsorbing.
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© 1984 Plenum Press, New York
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Chandrasekhar, S. (1984). Cholesteric Liquid Crystals. In: March, N., Tosi, M. (eds) Polymers, Liquid Crystals, and Low-Dimensional Solids. Physics of Solids and Liquids. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2367-9_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2367-9_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9448-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-2367-9
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