Hyperspectral Imaging of Bio-Inspired Tilted Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Structures

The cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) phase exhibits a helical structure with a twist axis perpendicular to the local molecular director. When light propagates in the Bragg regime through a CLC slab with a planar texture, the medium gives rise to Bragg reflection, selective in wavelength and in polarization. The characteristics of the Bragg band are tunable by acting on the following structural parameters: the pitch, the helicity sense and the helix orientation. Tuning the latter parameter produces polygonal textures (Fig. 1, center). Such a texture is made of an array of micrometer-scale polygonal cells, acting a network of microlenses with wavelength-tunable focusing properties [1]. Polygonal textures can be found in biological CLCs (for instance, multiwavelength micromirrors the cuticle of scarab beetle Chrysina gloriosa [2]).