Determination of nematics material parameters by measurements of Fredericksz transitions in crossed electric and magnetic fields in wedge cell

Abstract

Wedge cells of the wedge angle of order of few milliradians were used to measure the threshold voltages for the Freedericksz transition in electric and magnetic fields crossed. A nematic liquid crystal, PCB, filling cells was of planar orientation enforced by the treatment of the flat boundary plates, covered with poly(amic acid) PM9. A system of interference fringes appeared in each cell placed in normally incident light between analyzer and polarizer crossed. In the vicinity of each fringe a cell could be considered as a flat-parallel one and hence it was equivalent to the system of flat cells of different precisely determined thickness. Threshold voltages, parameterized by magnetic field magnitudes were interpreted as the eigenvalues of the boundary eigenvalue problem for the operator of the second derivative; the interaction between the nematics and the substrates was assumed very strong with the anchoring direction parallel to the cell boundaries. The resulting formulae were used to determine the anisotropy of diamagnetic susceptibility and the splay elastic constant of PCB after the threshold magnitudes measured. The estimates of material parameters agreed well with those determined by the composite method.