Interplay between finite thickness and chirality effects on the Casimir-Lifshitz torque with nematic cholesteric liquid crystals

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the combined effects of the chirality and the finite total thickness of nematic cholesteric liquid crystals on the Casimir-Lifshitz torque. We find that, the larger the thickness, the more sinusoidal the angular dependence of the torque becomes. We use a Fourier decomposition to quantify this result. The general direction of the torque depends on whether the configuration of two cholesterics is heterochiral or homochiral.