Minute area surface anchor energy - measuring method null of nematic liquid crystal

摘要

PURPOSE: To measure the anchoring energy of fine-area boundary face in a nematic liquid crystal element by finding the correspondence of optical retardation with the applied voltage measured during the measuring process for optical retardation by the relation the optical retardation corresponding to the applied voltage that is calculated during the simulation process. ;CONSTITUTION: A liquid crystal cell 10 is placed within a thermostat 21 and the temperature therein is controlled so as to keep the nematic phase of the cell 10 by a temperature controller 22. A desired waveform generator 24 outputs a sine wave voltage to an amplifier 25 according to the control signals from a computer 23. The outputs from the amplifier 25 are applied to the cell 10. The outputted light from a laser light source 27 is subject to straight polarization through a polarizing plate 28 and then it is modulated by a photoelastic modulation element 29 and directed to the cell 10. The transmissive light of the cell 10 is inputted through a polarizing plate 30 to a detector 31, and the detected optical amplitude signal is sent to the computer 23 through a lock-in amplifier 32, then optical retardation is detected. The actually measured applied voltage and optical retardation are simulated by the computer 23 to obtain the anchoring strength of the cell 10.;COPYRIGHT: (C)1995,JPO