Calculation of a surface-induced polar effect in nematic liquid crystals

We report accurate numerical results for a surface-induced polar effect in a nematic liquid crystal, associated with the symmetry breaking of anisotropic interfacial interactions. By performing numerical simulations, the orientational profiles of the director, the surface molecular tilt, and the resulting optical phase shift are obtained as a function of both the anchoring strength and an external electric field E. In a simple geometry with homogeneous boundary conditions, the polar effect is directly related to the difference in the anchoring energy, and its magnitude depends primarily on ${\mathit{E}}^{\mathrm{-}2}$.