Experimental Observation of the Total Reflection by a Monodomain Cholesteric Liquid Crystal

The reflection spectra from a monodomain cholesteric liquid crystal are measured for obliquely incident light. The first order reflection region is found to be divided into three regions at a large angle of incidence. The central region shows high reflectivity irrespective of incident polarization and is attributed to the total reflection. The total reflection peak is also observed between the second order reflection peaks even at a small angle of incidence. The reflection spectra are numerically computed by the 4×4 matrix method and are in good agreement with the experiments.