Measurements of an azimthual anchoring energy in LC cells with axially symmetric / homogeneous alignment configurations

Abstract

Measurement techniques of an azimuthal anchoring energy are discussed in LC cells in which LC molecules align homogeneously on one substrate and axial-symmetrically on another substrate. These LC cells provide arbitrary combination angles of easy axes from 0° to 90°. Anchoring energies can be estimated semi-quantitatively with ease, but a high accuracy measurement is also possible. Moreover, the anchoring energy of a flow-induced alignment is tried to measure.