Liquid Crystals and their Applications in the THz Frequency Range

Abstract

We present a survey through the study of liquid crystals with terahertz time domain spectroscopy. The macroscopic dielectric properties such as the refractive index and the absorption coefficient for both ordinary and extraordinary polarization of various liquid crystals are presented and the underlying physical mechanisms are discussed. Furthermore, we deduce the microscopic characteristics such as the order parameter and the polarizabilities from the measured data.