Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 20, 2026

An Electrochemical Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Device for Quick and Low-Voltage Color Modulation
Published on: February 27, 2019
Anisotropic dielectric tensor for chiral polyfluorene at optical frequencies
Girish Lakhwani1, René A J Janssen, Stefan C J Meskers
1Molecular Materials and Nanosystems, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The anisotropic dielectric tensor of chiral poly[9,9-bis((3S)-3,7-dimethyloctyl)-2,7-fluorene] is determined via variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry and circular dichroism spectroscopy. The uniaxial anisotropy indicates a high in-plane alignment of polymer chains in the thin film. Chirality of the polymer results in small but nonzero off-diagonal matrix elements in the dielectric tensor, indicating a helical interchain organization in the vertical direction. This method for determining the dielectric tensor appears to be self-consistent when checked against various theoretical models for the optical activity in the reflection of light. The dielectric constants for the chiral polyfluorene are compared to those for an achiral polyfluorene.
More Related Videos
09:43Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
Published on: August 13, 2019
06:26Orientational Transition in a Liquid Crystal Triggered by the Thermodynamic Growth of Interfacial Wetting Sheets
Published on: May 15, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Dielectric Polarization in a Capacitor
Susceptibility, Permittivity and Dielectric Constant
Potential Due to a Polarized Object
Polymer Classification: Stereospecificity
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...