Abstract

The apparent circular dichroism arising from the selective reflection of circularly polarized light by cholesteric films of (hydroxypropyl)cellulose is extremely sensitive to residual linear orientation. The introduction of a uniaxially oriented film in the spectropolarimeter beam in front of a liquid crystalline sample may change both the intensity and the sign of the observed mesophase reflection band. The results can be understood by a simple consideration of the way in which the polarization state of light is altered as it traverses the birefringent film. These observations emphasize a potential problem in the use of circular reflectivity as a method to characterize the reflection properties of polymeric cholesteric liquid crystals. The presence of linear orientation in such samples can give rise to artifacts.

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