title: Pretransitional optical activity of short-pitched chiral nematic liquid crystals.
abstract: We have developed, using the de Gennes theory of short-range orientational order in the isotropic phase, a closed-form expression for the temperature dependence of the pretransitional optical activity of chiral nematics. Detailed calculations are included and the results are expressed in a form that can be easily tested experimentally. The theoretical predictions are supported by experimental data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science, The University of the West Indies, P.O. Box 64, Bridgetown, Barbados.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hunte
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Singh