Photonic defect modes of cholesteric liquid crystals

We investigate defect modes of cholesteric liquid crystals as photonic band gap materials. For normal incidence of light, cholesteric liquid crystals exhibit total reflection for the circular polarization with the same handed ness as that of cholesteric helix. However. the other orthogonal component is completely transmitted. When we replace a thin layer of liquid crystal b y an isotropic material as a defect, defect modes are induced for both pola rizations of incident light. We analyze the wavelength and reflectivity of the defect modes in terms of the refractive index of defect layer. [S1063-6 51X(99)09312-5].