EFFECTIVE-MEDIUM THEORY OF LIGHT-SCATTERING IN POLYMER-DISPERSED LIQUID-CRYSTAL FILMS

We present calculations of the optical properties of PDLC films subjec ted to normally incident unpolarized light, in the long-wavelength reg ime under which the Rayleigh-Gans approximation applies. The calculati ons use an effective medium theory to take account of dependent scatte ring effects due to close packing of droplets, and use the Percus-Yevi ck approximation for hard spheres to account for interference effects. The director configurations inside the droplets are found using the e ffective medium theory which we have developed in earlier papers. Typi cal results are presented for radial and bipolar droplets. Detailed qu antitative results have been derived for the optical characteristics i n the presence of an applied field for the technologically important c ase of PDLC films containing partially ordered bipolar droplets.