Disordered chiral structures

Abstract

Inspired by the morphological disorder that underlies the exhibition of circular-polarization-state-sensitive color by the exocuticle in many beetle species, the concept of disordered chirality was theoretically explored. The disordered chiral structure chosen is one wherein each helical turn may be different from its adjacent helical turns. The boundary-value problem of reflection and transmission of a normally incident plane wave by a disordered chiral structure was solved. Numerical results indicate the remarkable resilience of circular-polarization-stateselective reflection.