Nonreciprocal localization of light in magnetoactive cholesteric liquid crystals in an external magnetic field

The optical properties of cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) exhibiting magneto-optical activity in the presence of an external static magnetic field have been investigated. The boundary-value problem of light transmission through a finite layer of a magnetoactive CLC at normal incidence of light is considered in the limiting case of the absence of local linear birefringence in the medium. That is a CLC with parameters Re ∆ = 0 , Im ∆ ≠ 0 , where ∆ = e 1 − e 2 / 2 , and e 1 , e 2 are the principal values of the local dielectric tensor, is considered. In this case, in the absence of an external magnetic field, all linearly polarized incident waves undergo practically the same reflection in the photonic band gap (PBG). An external magnetic field removes this degeneracy. For the first time, the features of the localization of light in a layer of a magnetoactive CLC are investigated, and it is shown that an external magnetic field leads to a change in the localized light energy in the CLC layer and nonreciprocal accumulation of light energy takes place.