2004 Volume 73 Issue 6 Pages 764-767
Total-reflection ellipsometry (TRE), specifically designed for the observation of liquid crystal (LC) reorientation dynamics at the LC/alignment layer interface, has been developed. Time-resolved TRE can extract the dynamic response of surface LC molecules induced by the application of an external electric field, while transmission ellipsometry provides information about the bulk reorientation dynamics. In this paper, we describe the design and fabrication of a time-resolved TRE system and report its first application to the study of an optical flickering effect occurring in a nematic LC cell when a bipolar electric field is applied. We will also demonstrate that the optical flickering effect is due to ion migration in the LC cell; therefore, it is strongly influenced by physical/chemical properties of an alignment layer material.
