Application of polarization modulated spectroellipsometry to the study of liquid crystal reorientation dynamics (II) : Quantitative analysis of dye-doped reflection elipsometry

Abstract

The electric-field induced reorientation dynamics of 5CB liquid crystals has been studied by polarization modulated spectroellipsometry (PMSE), and analyzed by a 4 x 4 matrix simulation based on the elastic continuum theory. The dynamic behavior of surface molecules (reflection PMSE observations) and of bulk molecules (transmission PMSE results) have been quantitatively reproduced. It is also shown that the PMSE experiment can distinguish the dynamics of surface molecules in strong and weak anchoring systems. These new observations can provide a direct insight into the origin of the surface anchoring effect.