Аннотация:Cholesteric liquid crystals reflecting circularly polarised light are promising materials for creatingflexible and compact polarisers. One of the issues of these systems is the narrow width of thephotonic stop band. The range of selective light reflection can be increased by creating a gradientof the cholesteric pitch in the process of photopolymerisation of reactive cholesteric mixtures. Thepossibility of broadening the peak of selective light reflection during UV polymerisation ofnematogenic diacrylate mixed with chiral monoacrylates was studied. The monoacrylates usedhad a different number of aromatic rings.A broadening of the peak of selective light reflection was observed during the photopolymerisationof mixtures containing a chiral monomer with three benzene rings. While before irradiationthe width of the selective reflection peak was about 100 nm, after irradiation it was broadened toabout 300 nm. A mechanism is proposed for the formation of the helical pitch gradient in thecholesteric, in which the smectogenity of the system plays a crucial role. The obtained results openup new possibilities for creating flexible and thin circular polarisers operating in a wide spectralrange.