Alignment of nematic liquid crystals on polycarbonate films obtained with the use of solvents with different solvations is studied. Domain structures occurring during the growth on the polymer surface against the background of the initial thread-like or schlieren texture are demonstrated. It is established by optical methods that the domains are stable formations visualizing the polymer surface structures. In nematic droplets, the temperature-induced transition from the domain structure with two extinction bands to the structure with four bands is observed. This transition is shown to be caused by reorientation of the nematic director in the liquid crystal volume from the planar alignment to the homeotropic state with the pronounced radial configuration of nematic molecules on the surface. The observed textures are compared with different combinations of the volume LC orientations and the radial distribution of the director field and the disclination lines at the polycarbonate surface.

Using electro- and magneto-optical techniques, we investigated orientational transitions in the ensembles of domains in a nematic liquid crystal on the polycarbonate film surface under the conditions of competing surface forces that favor radial and uniform planar alignment of nematic molecules. Having analyzed field dependences of the intensity of light passed through a sample, we established the threshold character of the orientational effects, plotted the calculated intensity versus magnetic coherence length, and compared the latter with the equilibrium length that characterizes the balance of forces on the polymer surface.

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Light transmission spectrum of a multilayer photonic crystal with a central liquid-crystal defect layer placed between crossed polarizers has been studied. Transmittance was varied due to the magnetically induced reorientation of the nematic director from homeotropic to planar alignment. Two notable effects were observed for this scheme: the spectral shift of defect modes corresponding to the extraordinary light wave and its superposition with the ordinary one. As a result, the optical cell allows controlling the intensity of interfering defect modes by applied magnetic field.

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Defect modes are investigated in a band gap of an electrically tunable one-dimensional photonic crystal infiltrated with a twisted-nematic liquid crystal. Their frequency shift and interference under applied voltage are studied both experimentally and theoretically. We deal with the case where the defect layer thickness is much larger than the wavelength (i.e., the Mauguin condition). It is shown theoretically that the defect modes could have a complex structure with elliptic polarization. Two series of polarized modes are coupled with each other and exhibit an avoided crossing phenomenon in the case of opposite parity.

A one-dimensional ZrO(2)/SiO(2) photonic crystal with a 4-n -pentyl-4' -cyanobiphenyl (5CB) nematic defect layer was used to investigate the transmission spectra of light polarized parallel and perpendicular to the liquid-crystal director at different angles of incidence. The spectra of the photonic crystal were shown to split into four polarized components T(ij) at oblique incidence. When the incident angle increased, the bandgap edges and the defect modes shifted towards short wavelengths, while the amplitudes of the defect modes increased for the transverse magnetic polarization and decreased for the transverse electric polarization. The observed discrepancy between the defect mode amplitudes in the center and near the edges of the photonic bandgap was found to be related to the radiation losses inside the defect layer of a non-ideal photonic crystal. The simulated transmission spectra obtained using recurrence relations and taking into account the decay of defect modes are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Anomalous spectral shift of transmission peaks is observed in a Fabry-Pérot cavity filled with a chiral anisotropic medium. The effective refractive index value resides out of the interval between the ordinary and the extraordinary refractive indices. The spectral shift is explained by contribution of a geometric phase. The problem is solved analytically using the approximate Jones matrix method, numerically using the accurate Berreman method, and geometrically using the generalized Mauguin-Poincaré rolling cone method. The o-mode blueshift is measured for a 4-methoxybenzylidene-4 -n-butylaniline twisted-nematic layer inside the Fabry-Pérot cavity. The twist is electrically induced due to the homeoplanar-twisted configuration transition in an ionic-surfactant-doped liquid crystal layer. Experimental evidence confirms the validity of the theoretical model.