抄録
We have performed the time-course experiment of optical response in cholesteric liquid crystals under rapid temperature change in order to clarify how helical structure is formed from the order in molecular size. It has been found that the formation process into highly ordered helical structure is classified into three categories with different time scales. The first step is the change of helical pitch maintaining the total three-dimensional (3D) structure. The second is the partial breakdown of the helical structure maintaining its two-dimensionality. The last is the complete breakdown of the 3D structure, which needs several hours to be reconstructed.
