Ukrainian Journal of Physical Optics

Number 2, Volume 2, June 2001

Optical conoscopy of distorted uniaxial liquid crystals: computer simulation and experiment
Nastishin Yu.A., Dovgyi O.B., Vlokh O.G.

Institute of Physical Optics, 23 Dragomanov Str., 79005, L’viv, Ukraine

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We propose an algorithm to compute the conoscopic pattern for distorted uniaxial liquid crystal cells. The computed conoscopic figures for several cells (homeotropic, planar, twist, hybrid, hybrid under an external field) are compared to the corresponding experimental conoscopic patterns. We demonstrate that conoscopy can be used for the characterization of the distorted nematic cells with the director deformations which can not be detected and unambigously characterized by direct microscopy observations and other techniques

Key words: optical conoscopy, uniaxial single crystals, distorted liquid crystal, birefringence, computer simulation

doi 10.3116/16091833/2/2/98/2001

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