The influence of an electric field on the trajectory of an extraordinary light ray in a layer of a chiral liquid crystal (LC) with a 180 • turn of the director is studied. In the absence of the electric field and at a large angle of incidence the ray reflects inside the layer and return back through the surface which it entered. The applied electric field distorts the initial configuration of the director. It results in a change of the ray trajectory so that the light is propagated through the LC cell. The study of the temporal characteristics of the effect at various angles of incidence of light on the layer makes it possible to examine the local reorientation of the director inside the cell.
The light propagation in helical liquid crystals with the pitch much larger than the wavelength of light is under consideration. It is predicted theoretically and observed experimentally that the extraordinary wave returns back if the incidence angle is larger than some critical value. This effect results from the wave guide propagation of light in liquid crystals and is not related with the reflection on the boundary.
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