Abstract:Transmission of planar layers of cholesteric liquid crystals is studied in pulsed electric fields perpendicular to the helix axis at normal incidence of both linearly polarized and unpolarized light. Spectral and light polarization properties of the primary photonic band and the field-induced bands up to fourth order of Bragg selective reflection are studied in detail. In our experiments we have achieved an electric field strength several times higher than the theoretical values corresponding to the critical f… Show more