New method of determination of the tilt angle at a liquid crystal-glass interface

TL;DR

This paper introduces a polarimetric technique for accurately measuring the tilt angle of liquid crystal directors at an interface, utilizing total internal reflection and polarization measurements to cover all tilt angles.

Contribution

A novel polarimetric method for determining liquid crystal tilt angles at interfaces, applicable across the entire tilt range, based on total internal reflection and polarization analysis.

Findings

Effective measurement of tilt angles across the full range.

Utilizes polarization azimuth of incident light for calculations.

Applicable to various liquid crystal configurations.

Abstract

We propose a polarimetric method for measuring the tilt angle of the LC director at an LC layer interface.The method involves the use of an LC cell operating in the mode of the total internal reflection of the ordinary wave. The method is based on measuring the angle of the plane of light incidence on the cell with the polarization vector of the extraordinary wave passed through the cell or with the polarization vector of the ordinary wave reflected from the cell. To calculate the tilt angle, the polarization azimuth of the light incident on the cell, which induces only the ordinary wave, can be also used.The method is applicable throughout the whole range of the LC director tilt angles.