Measurement of nematic liquid crystal splay and bend elastic constants with obliquely incident light

Abstract

With the use of an obliquely incident light propagating in the plane containing the liquid crystal director, a simple optical method is presented to study the planar oriented liquid crystal cell properties. This method is very useful for the measurement of the liquid crystal splay and bend elastic constants. Simple analytic formulas are obtained for the optical responses in the parallel and homeotropic oriented nematic liquid crystal cells. The results are applied to the magnetic field-, electric field-, and optical field-induced Freedericksz transitions.