A method to determine the higher order polar anchoring coefficients for the non-twisted liquid crystal cells

Abstract

We propose a method to determine the higher order polar anchoring coefficients for the non-twisted liquid crystal cells. The surface anchoring energy density was determined by measuring the phase retardations as a function of applied voltage. We extended the Rapini-Papoular model and obtained the coefficients of the first and the second terms by analyzing the measured phase retardations with the simulated curves for the homogeneous and homeotropic cells. A discussion of the experimental results is given.