Heliconical Cholesterics: new opportunities for optofluidics?

In this presentation the novelty represented by the heliconical cholesteric liquid crystals (Ch-OH) for easy electric and optical control of optical properties are highlighted. After a quick summary of their electro-optical properties, an account of the recent experimental and theoretical achievements about the nonlinear optical response of Ch-OH will be given. The peculiar conical structure allows an easy control of the spectral location of the Bragg resonance making possible effects never observed previously in pure liquid crystals, making these materials attractive for development of several optical devices.