Measurement of the lc pretilt angle and polar anchoring in cells with homogeneous and inhomogeneous lc director configuration and weak anchoring on organosilicon aligning films

New optical and electro-optical methods of LC director average tilt angle measurement are described in LC cells with homogeneous and inhomogeneous LC director distribution. The LC pretilt on both LC substrates can have the same or opposite direction. Both LC pretilt angle and polar anchoring energy values have been measured for both polar and weak polar liquid crystal materials on aligning films of organosilicon compounds (OC) of different molecular structure. The method developed can be used also in optical compensator design. © 2012 SID.