キラル液晶薄膜の秩序構造が示すKossel diagram

抄録

We have shown both experimentally and numerically that a thin film of a chiral liquid crystal exhibits various exotic ordered structures. Here we discuss Kossel diagrams exhibited by such structures. Kossel diagrams visualize the direction along which monochromatic incident light is strongly reflected. Although Kossel diagrams have been used for the investigation of bulk crystal structures, we show that they can be applied also to the study of structures in thin films. We numerically construct Kossel diagrams by solving the Maxwell equations for light waves, and almost perfectly reproduce experimental Kossel diagrams. We also show that Kossel lines from a thin system are attributable to guided-mode resonance inside the system, not Bragg reflections that are responsible for Kossel lines from bulk crystals.