Method of Studying Surface Torsional Anchoring of Nematic Liquid Crystal

Abstract
In this paper we introduce a method to study surface torsional anchoring of both chiral-molecule-doped and pure nematic liquid crystal (NLC) without using any extra field. By measuring the transmission of the twisted or supertwisted NLC cells, the actual twist angles in NLC cells are obtained, which differ from the angle between two boundary rubbing directions. A theoretical discussion reveals the relationship of the surface torsional anchoring energy and the difference, and thus the surface torsional anchoring energy can be calculated.