Determination of Chirality by Light Scattering

U. Singh; L.L. Moseley

doi:doi:10.1051/jp2:1995220

Numéro		J. Phys. II France Volume 5, Numéro 7, July 1995


Page(s)		919 - 925
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/jp2:1995220

DOI: 10.1051/jp2:1995220
J. Phys. II France 5 (1995) 919-925

Determination of Chirality by Light Scattering

U. Singh and L.L. Moseley

Department of Physics, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados, West Indies

(Received 2 November 1994, revised 3 April 1995, accepted 10 April 1995)

Abstract
The pretransitional back-scattering of circularly polarized light in cholesteryl propionate was studied and the amplitude of fluctuations in two of the five structural modes present in the isotropic phase of this chiral nematic (cholesteric) measured. From these measurements, we calculated the pitch parameter $\kappa$ and tested the theoretical prediction that chiral nematics which form at least one blue phase have $\kappa>0.6$ . Our results do not support this prediction.