RUI: Optical Activity and Light Scattering in Highly Chiral Liquid Crystals

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The objective of this project is to investigate the influence of chirality on phases and phase transitions in liquid crystals through the use of optical activity and light scattering measurements. Previous work has demonstrated that high chirality has a significant effect on both the phases which form in liquid crystals and the transition between phases. This project seeks to extend this work by: (1) performing similar optical activity and light scattering measurements in a new liquid crystal system to see if the previously observed effects of chirality are universal or compound specific: (2) employing dynamic light scattering to probe the time evolution of the complex fluctuations which occur in some phases and near phase transitions in highly chiral liquid crystals; and (3) investigating the fluctuations which take place in highly chiral liquid crystals at phase transitions induced by electric field. The goal in all these studies is to determine the limits of the present theoretical ideas concerning chiral liquid crystals and to suggest ways they may be extended to properly describe highly chiral systems.