Abstract
Circular Bragg reflectors have the ability of reflecting the cohanded circular-polarization mode of the inherent helicoidal structures. Cuticles of some plants and beetles are examples of natural circular Bragg reflectors. In many cases, the period or pitch of the helicoidal structure shows spatial variation across the cuticle (pitch profile). Among scarab beetles, the special architecture in the cuticle of the Chrysina resplendens comprising a birefringent layer sandwiched between two helicoidal layers reflects both right- and left-handed circular-polarization states. In this work, the modeling of Mueller-matrix data is applied to investigate polarization properties of this exceptional structure by using pitch profile and optical functions reported in the literature. Reflectance spectra for circular-polarization states are explained in terms of the phase shift introduced by the birefringent layer in a phasor plot. The azimuth-dependent polarization properties are investigated at oblique incidence for unpolarized light.
Highlights
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), sculptured thin films (STFs), cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films, and cuticles of some plants and scarab beetles exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon.1. These structurally chiral materials have the ability of reflecting the cohanded circularpolarization mode of the inherent helicoidal structures
The fourth component V = IR − IL accounts for circular polarization, where R and L
The incident (Si) and reflected (Sr) light beams are related by the 4 × 4 Mueller matrix (M) of the sample35
Summary
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), sculptured thin films (STFs), cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films, and cuticles of some plants and scarab beetles exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon. That is, these structurally chiral materials have the ability of reflecting the cohanded circularpolarization mode of the inherent helicoidal structures. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), sculptured thin films (STFs), cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films, and cuticles of some plants and scarab beetles exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon.. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), sculptured thin films (STFs), cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films, and cuticles of some plants and scarab beetles exhibit the circular Bragg phenomenon.1 That is, these structurally chiral materials have the ability of reflecting the cohanded circularpolarization mode of the inherent helicoidal structures. Berreman developed a 4 × 4 matrix formulation to calculate the optical response of anisotropic stratified media This so-called Berreman method has been applied in the characterization of several structurally chiral materials like CLC, STF, CNC, plants, and the cuticle of beetles.. We investigate polarization properties of the architecture in the cuticle of the scarab beetle C. resplendens using model-calculations in a Mueller–Stokes approach.
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