Singularities in polarization resolved angular patterns: transmittance of nematic liquid crystal cells

Abstract

We study the angular structure of polarization of light transmitted through a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cell by theoretically analyzing the polarization state as a function of the incidence angles. For a uniformly aligned NLC cell, the 4×4 matrix formalism and the orthogonality relations are used to derive the exact expressions for the transmission and reflection matrices. The polarization resolved angular patterns in the two-dimensional projection plane are characterized in terms of the polarization singularities such as C points (points of circular polarization) and L lines (lines of linear polarization). In the case of linearly polarized plane waves incident on the homeotropically aligned cell, we present the results of detailed theoretical analysis describing the structure of the polarization singularities. We apply the theory to compute the polarization patterns for various orientational structures in the NLC cell and discuss the effects induced by director orientation and biaxiality.

Polarization-gratings approach to deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystals with subwavelength pitch

“…[27,28] for stratified anisotropic media. Mathematically, in this approach, the key formulas (37) and (38) give the transmission and reflection matrices of diffraction orders, T n and R n , expressed in terms of the linking matrix (33) which is related to the evolution operator (20) of the system of matrix equations (16) for the Floquet harmonics (14) derived from the Maxwell's equations for the lateral components of the electric and magnetic fields (10).…”

“…[27,28] so as to treat the light transmission problem for a PG in the slab geometry shown in Fig. 2.…”

“…[27,28]. It suffices to note that, at W (11) 0n = 0, the system (34) gives the efficiency matricesT n = δ n0 I 2 indicative of the absence of diffracted waves.…”

“…[27,28] for stratified anisotropic media and goes beyond the limitations of Jones calculus. We apply the method for systematic treatment of the technologically important case of the deformed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals (DHFLCs) [29,30], where the LC director rotates about a uniform twist axis parallel to the substrates forming the ferroelectric LC (FLC) helical structure (see Fig.…”

Light-induced pitch transitions in photosensitive cholesteric liquid crystals: Effects of anchoring energy

“…6 are computed from the analytical expression for the transmission matrix deduced in Appendix A (see formulas (A52a), (A52c) and (A50a)) using the transfer matrix method in the form formulated in Refs. [37,39]. In particular, the curve depicted in Fig.…”