Specific properties of light localisation in the cholesteric liquid crystal layer. The effects of layer thickness

ABSTRACT

We investigated the effect of the thickness of the cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layer on the light energy and the density of the localised light energy in a CLC layer, as well as on the photonic density of states (PDS). It was shown that strong light localisation takes place on edge modes and that the amount of stored energy in the CLC layer depends on the value of refractive index of CLC layer surroundings. The dependences of the density of the localised light energy and PDS versus CLC layer thickness both for different wavelengths of incident light and edge modes are investigated. The effect of the thickness of the CLC layer on the total (integral) light energy and the density of the total localised light energy in the cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) layer is discussed. It was shown that the total energy density is maximum for very small thicknesses of the CLC layer. We investigated the effect of the thickness of the CLC layer on absorption, the total field (aroused in CLC layer) amplitude, ellipticity and azimuth, too.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Cholesteric liquid crystals
• localised light energy
• density of energy
• edge modes
• photonic density of states
• absorption
• total field aroused in specimen

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author received no direct funding for this research.