ABSTRACT
An electromagnetic wave consists of propagating electric and magnetic fields. In order to propagate as an electromagnetic wave, both the electric and magnetic fields must point in a direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation, and in addition, the electric field must always be perpendicular to the magnetic field. An electromagnetic wave consists of propagating electric and magnetic fields. The fundamental electromagnetic wave possesses electric and magnetic fields that oscillate sinusoidally in both space and time. Since the amount of optical retardation is a function of wavelength, some colours pass through the second polariser with more intensity than other colours, so the liquid crystal can appear quite coloured. The effect on the circularly polarised light is that right- and left-handed circularly polarised light propagate at different velocities. The exact shape of the optical activity curve in the anomalous region and the selective reflection curve also, depends on the thickness of the sample.
