Chiral Parameter of Transparent Films Containing Polymer Cholesteric Liquid Crystal-R

The transparent film containing a kind of polymer cholesteric liquid crystal-R was fabricated by the freezing method. The optical polarization response of the film was investigated by a self-manufactured apparatus and its optical rotatory dispersion was measured by a novel technique at the wavelength from 350nm to 660nm. At various wavelengths, the chiral parameter of the film has been obtained. The results show that the chiral parameter decreases as the wavelength increases. The maximum and minimum chiral parameters are 0.0343 at the wavelength of 350nm and 0.0058 at the wavelength of 660nm, respectively. The obtained data indicate that this kind of polymer cholesteric liquid crystal-R is a promising candidate host material for solid optical chiral waveguides.