CHOLESTERIC LIQUID CRYSTAL

A 'cholesteric liquid crystal' is a liquid crystal with a helical structure and which is therefore chiral. Cholesteric liquid crystals are also known as 'chiral nematic liquid crystals'. They organise in layers with no positional ordering within layers, but a director axis which varies with layers. The variation of the director axis tends to be periodic in nature. The period of this variation is known as the pitch.