Experimental Studies on Reflection Spectra in Monodomain Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Cells: Total Reflection, Subsidiary Oscillation and Its Beat or Swell Structure

Many optical properties are presented here in the reflection spectra for monodomain cholesterics of various cell thicknesses at various angles of incidence. It is reported for the first time that left-circularly polarized light incident on a left-handed helix gives rise to a beat structure in the subsidiary oscillation, while right-circularly polarized light causes a swell to be superimposed on the subsidiary oscillation. The beat structure is ascribed to the excitation of two sets of optical eigen modes, each set consisting of two optical eigen modes of slightly different wavelength. The polarization characteristics of the total reflection band as well as the selective reflection band are also discussed.