A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE ANOMALOUS OUT-OF-PLANE TILT ALIGNMENT IN AN ORTHOGONAL-TWIST FERROELECTRIC LIQUID-CRYSTAL CELL USING THEPRISM-COUPLING TECHNIQUE
Cr. Lavers et al., A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE ANOMALOUS OUT-OF-PLANE TILT ALIGNMENT IN AN ORTHOGONAL-TWIST FERROELECTRIC LIQUID-CRYSTAL CELL USING THEPRISM-COUPLING TECHNIQUE, Liquid crystals, 15(5), 1993, pp. 749-755
Recent prism-coupling results are presented which clearly demonstrate
that in ferroelectric liquid crystal cells, prepared with the alignmen
t directions of the two surfaces orthogonal, with sputtered indium tin
oxide conductive layers and spun polyimide alignment layers, there is
no out-of-plane tilt of the liquid crystal optic axis. Unlike most te
chniques which give an integrated optical response throughout a cell,
the prism-coupling technique allows a separate analysis of in-plane an
d out-of-plane tilt. Conventional optical polarized microscopy yields
good lateral resolution but poor section resolution. For a uniform sam
ple we can obtain information on the section (across the cell) resolut
ion. We report that an optical dielectric tensor configuration is form
ed in which the major optic axis lies in the plane of the surface acro
ss the cell, but that as expected, in an orthogonal-twist cell, there
is no axis of preferred alignment within this surface plane.