Optical activity of oriented molecules

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Abstract
Measurements of the optical rotation of a sample of a cholesteryl chloride/cholesteryl laurate mixture of 1 mm thickness show a continuous transition from the compensated cholesteric to the compensated nematic state as a function of the electric field strength. The molecular optical rotation of the oriented molecules (AORD) of this mixture for the nematic state is used for the calculation of a relative order parameter and its temperature dependence. The influence of an optically inactive solute on the order parameter of the liquid crystal matrix has been analysed. In addition it has been shown that the optical rotation measurements as a function of the temperature and the electric field yield a very precise method for the determination of the nematic temperature.