All-optical method for measuring liquid crystal elastic and dynamic properties

Perex
Abstract: Nowadays liquid crystals (LCs) find broad application in a variety of electronic and optical devices. We present a simple all-optical method for measuring both the elastic and dynamic characteristics of nematic liquid crystals. Using the same experimental set-up, we developed the three-step measurement protocol and a corresponding fitting procedure that simultaneously determine the following LC parameters: the splay and bend elastic constants, the rotational viscosity and the combination of Leslie viscosity coefficients.
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Moreover, the uniformity of LC layer thickness and quality of the alignment on the surfaces can be determined.