PHOTONIC BANDS IN SIMPLE AND BODY-CENTERED-CUBIC CHOLESTERIC BLUE PHASES

A procedure is developed for calculating photon bands in materials cha racterized by tensor dielectric properties. As a specific example, the cholesteric blue phases are considered, and their respective photon b ands are calculated for simple and body-centered-cubic structures. The se noncentrosymmetric materials interact strongly with only one of the two possible circularly polarized radiation modes; however, no full p hoton gaps are found even for this mode. The reasons for this are note d. The technique presented is general and can be applied to all materi als characterized by tensor dielectric properties.