Nematic and left-handed chiral−nematic liquid crystals comprising methoxybiphenylbenzoate and (S)−(−)-1-phenylethylamine pendants to a cyclohexane core were synthesized and
characterized. Although pristine samples were found to be polycrystalline, thermal quenching
following heating to and annealing at elevated temperatures permitted the molecular orders
characteristic of liquid crystalline mesomorphism to be frozen in the glassy state. Left at
room temperature for 6 months, the vitrified liquid crystalline films showed no evidence of
recrystallization. An orientational order parameter of 0.65 was determined with linear
dichroism of a vitrified nematic film doped with Exalite 428 at a mole fraction of 0.0025.
Birefringence dispersion of a blank vitrified nematic film was determined using a phase-difference method complemented by Abbé refractometry. A series of vitrified chiral−nematic
films were prepared to demonstrate selective reflection and circular polarization with a
spectral region tunable from blue to the infrared region by varying the chemical composition.
The experimentally measured circular polarization spectra were found to agree with the
Good−Karali theory in which all four system parameters were determined a priori: optical
birefringence, average refractive index, selective reflection wavelength, and film thickness.
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