Relationship of pitch length of cholesteric liquid crystals with order parameter and normalized polarizability

It is well-known that a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) resembles nematic liquid crystal (NLC) in all physical properties except a tendency to align CLC molecules into a helical structure. Thus, due to these mutual similarities between a CLC and NLC, finding the relationship of pitch length (P) with physical parameters of an NLC can develop the CLC properties. In this work, we introduced the relationship of P with NLC's order parameter, and normalized polarizability as used in CLC. We successfully equationalized the temperature dependence of p with order parameter, and normalized polarizability of NLC. The temperature-dependent p shows linear equational form with order parameter, and normalized polarizability. Based on our results, P decreases at high temperatures, and increases with the order parameter values and molecular normalized extraordinary polarizability parameter. The results exhibit several advantages, such as simplifying the complex experimental works before synthesizing chiral dopants as employed in CLC, developing the selective reflection properties in a CLC with NLCs, and investigating the helical twisting property in CLC with the physical properties of NLCs. •NLC properties play important roles in pitch length changes.•There is good linear relation between pitch length and temperature.•Studies on the NLC features provide a new method for calculation of pitch length.