Anisotropy of the Refractive Indices of 8CB Liquid Crystalline Free-Standing Films

Abstract

The incident angle dependence of the phase difference for thin 8CB liquid crystalline free-standing films (FSFs) was studied by transmission ellipsometry using a PEM and the theoretical calculation using the simple analytical method for the SmA phase FSF. Then, we were accurately able to determine the anisotropy of the refractive indices (n_‖=1.665,n_⊥=1.523) of the 8CB-FSF, by fitting the simulated characteristics to the experimental characteristics using the least-squares method. In addition, as the result of discussing the layer spacing of 8CB-FSF, it was indicated that the layer spacing differed in even number layer and odd number layer.