• Chinese Optics Letters
  • Vol. 18, Issue 8, 080005 (2020)
Conglong Yuan1, Wenbin Huang1、2, Xiaoqian Wang1, Dong Shen1, and Zhigang Zheng1、3、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Physics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
  • 2School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China
  • 3Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA
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    DOI: 10.3788/COL202018.080005 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Conglong Yuan, Wenbin Huang, Xiaoqian Wang, Dong Shen, Zhigang Zheng. Electrically tunable helicity of cholesteric heliconical superstructure [Invited][J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2020, 18(8): 080005 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    The dynamic manipulation of the helicity in a cholesteric helical superstructure could enable precise control over its physical and chemical properties, thus opening numerous possibilities for exploring multifunctional devices. When cholesteric material satisfies the sufficiently small bending elastic effect, an electrically induced deformation named the cholesteric heliconical superstructure is formed. Through theoretical and numerical analysis, we systematically studied the tunable helicity of the heliconical superstructure, including the evolution of the corresponding oblique angle and pitch length. To further confirm the optical properties, Berreman’s 4 × 4 matrix method was employed to numerically analyze the corresponding structure reflection under the dual stimuli of chirality and electric field.
    f=12[K1(·n^)2+K2(n^·×n^q0)2+K3(n^××n^)2Δϵϵ0(n^·E)2],(1)

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    n^=(cosϕsinθ,sinϕsinθ,cosθ),(2)

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    n^=(cos(2πP0z),sin(2πP0z),0).(3)

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    n^=(0,0,1).(4)

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    n^=(cos(2πPz)sinθ,sin(2πPz)sinθ,cosθ).(5)

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    E2=2πP0K2Δϵϵ0K3,(6)

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    E1E2η[2+2(1η)]1+η,(7)

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    P=2πEK3ϵ0Δϵ,(8)

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    sin2θ=η1η(E2E1).(9)

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    Conglong Yuan, Wenbin Huang, Xiaoqian Wang, Dong Shen, Zhigang Zheng. Electrically tunable helicity of cholesteric heliconical superstructure [Invited][J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2020, 18(8): 080005
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