[20a-A204-1~10] 12.3 Functional Materials and Novel Devices

[20a-A204-1] Reflection characteristics in an electrically deformed cholesteric liquid crystal

〇Yo Inoue¹, Yusuke Shiozaki², Hiroshi Moritake¹ (1.National Defense Academy, 2.Nanophoton Corp.)

Keywords:Cholesteric liquid crystal, reflection

Cholesteric liquid crystals (ChLCs) are well-known to exhibit selective reflection, which reflects only a circularly polarized light with the same handedness as the helix. Hence, the ChLC have been limited up to 50% in reflectance for incident non-polarized light. To obtain the reflectance of 100%, the reflection must be independent of polarization state, as with dielectric multilayer mirrors. In this study, we realize a breakthrough in reflectance of the ChLC by removing the selectiveness on the circular polarization, and demonstrate the reflectance above 50% in a single ChLC material for the first time. This is a novel phenomenon, and thus we prove it both experimentally and theoretically. We believe that the phenomenon enhances the potential of the ChLC for practical applications such as reflective displays and laser cavities.