On optical rotation and selective transmission in ambichiral sculptured thin films

TL;DR

This paper models the optical rotation and selective transmission in ambichiral sculptured thin films, revealing dual circular Bragg regimes and effects of defects, with potential applications in polarization control.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed optical modeling of ambichiral sculptured thin films, including effects of twist and layer defects on their spectral properties.

Findings

Optical characteristics similar to chiral films at low rotations

Presence of two circular Bragg regimes at higher rotations

Defects create spectral holes in Bragg regimes

Abstract

The optical rotation and selective transmission spectrum of ambichiral sculptured thin films using transfer matrix method have been calculated. The results of optical modeling showed that optical characteristics ambichiral sculptured thin films are the same as chiral sculptured thin films in lower angular rotations. In higher angular rotations appear two circular Bragg regimes. The primary at shorter wavelengths reflects LCP light and the secondary at longer wavelengths reflects RCP light. The optical properties of ambichiral sculptured thin films with twist and layer defects as spectral holes in circular Bragg regimes have been reported.