Chiral liquid crystals manipulating photon and light wavefront

Abstract

Helical periodic structures of chiral liquid crystals (ChLCs) have been used as tools for controlling light, including mirrors and displays, because their scale is about the wavelength of light. On the other hand, since the 1990s, the application of ChLCs to photonic crystals, which manipulate photons by considering the helix as a self-organized nano-periodic structure, and to metasurfaces, which manipulate the wavefront of light by controlling the spatial distribution of the helix phase using patterned photoalignment technology, have been diversified. In this paper, the potential of ChLCs for such new photonic applications is reviewed.