Fig. 3: Comparison of reflection behavior of flat cholesteric films and densely packed CSRs on black background.

Three flat films of polymerized cholesteric liquid crystal (a) with vertical helix, with red, green and blue retroreflection color, respectively, are compared to three samples with close-packed CSRs (b) in cured NOA160 glue, with near-IR, green and blue retroreflection, respectively. The red and green films and the near-IR CSRs have right-handed helix while the blue film and the green and blue CSRs have left-handed helix. Three white-light illumination and full-color imaging configurations are compared, as illustrated in the schematics on the left; top: diffuse outdoor illumination around noon on a cloudy day; middle: collimated light along a direction mirroring the imaging direction, the mirror plane containing the sample normal; bottom: collimated light parallel to the imaging direction. For each configuration, five imaging angles α are compared, without polarizer and through right- and left-handed circular polarizer, respectively