Measurement of the liquid crystal pretilt angle in cells with homogeneous and inhomogeneous liquid crystal director configuration

Victor V Belyaev; Alexey S Solomatin; Denis N Chausov

doi:10.1364/AO.52.003012

Measurement of the liquid crystal pretilt angle in cells with homogeneous and inhomogeneous liquid crystal director configuration

Appl Opt. 2013 May 1;52(13):3012-9. doi: 10.1364/AO.52.003012.

Authors

Victor V Belyaev¹, Alexey S Solomatin, Denis N Chausov

Affiliation

¹ Laboratory for Theoretical and Applied Nanotechnology, Moscow Region State University, Moscow 105005, Russia. vic_belyaev@mail.ru

PMID: 23669767
DOI: 10.1364/AO.52.003012

Abstract

Optical and electro-optical methods of liquid crystal (LC) director pretilt angle measurement are described for LC cells with homogeneous and inhomogeneous LC director distribution. The LC pretilt on both LC substrates can have the same or opposite direction. The phase retardation difference of both extraordinary and ordinary polarized rays passing through an LC cell with homogeneous and inhomogeneous LC director distribution has been calculated versus the LC pretilt angle θ(0) on the cell's substrates in the range 0≤θ(0)≤90°. The experimental procedure for phase retardation difference determination by measurement of the LC cell transmission between crossed polarizers for cells with LC tilted alignment is described. The method developed can also be used in optical compensator design.