MEASUREMENT OF AZIMUTHAL ANCHORING ENERGY AT LIQUID CRYSTAL PHOTOPOLYMER INTERFACE/

The photopolymer material of poly(vinyl cinnamate) (PCVi) has been use d to investigate the contribution of the anisotropic van der Waals for ce to the azimuthal anchoring energy in a pentyl cyanobiphenyl (5CB)/P VCi system. The optical anisotropy of a PVCi film is precisely control led Lq varying the exposure time of linearly polarized UV light. and t he azimuthal anchoring energy in the film is estimated by measuring th e the width of the Neel nail. The result shows that the azimuthal anch oring energy in the 5CB/PVCi system increases exponentially with incre asing optical anisotropy, indicating the existence of additional contr ibutions to the LC alignment.