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Science 24 January 1986:
Vol. 231. no. 4736, pp. 350 - 355
DOI: 10.1126/science.231.4736.350
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Articles

Optical Activity and Ferroelectricity in Liquid Crystals

J. W. GOODBY 1

1 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ 07974.

Some liquid-crystalline phases of optically active materials are themselves optically active and have dissymmetric structures. The cholesteric phase and smectics C,I, and F have a helical order of their molecules. Plane-polarized light is rotated by the helix, and when the pitch of the helix is comparable to the wavelength of visible light, these phases will reflect irridescent light of a single color. The smectics phases can exhibit ferroelectricity and have been utilized recently in fast-switching light valves. A relation between the microscopic property of molecular configuration and the macroscopic properties of ferroelectricity and the rotation of plane-polarized light is developed.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
On the Origins of Spontaneous Polarization in Tilted Smectic Liquid Crystals.
D. J. Photinos and E. T. Samulski (1995)
Science 270, 783-786
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