All-optical method for measuring liquid crystal elastic and dynamic properties

Abstract: Nowadays liquid crystals (LCs) find broad application in a variety of electronic and optical devices. We present a simple all-optical method for measuring both the elastic and dynamic characteristics of nematic liquid crystals. Using the same experimental set-up, we developed the three-step measurement protocol and a corresponding fitting procedure that simultaneously determine the following LC parameters: the splay and bend elastic constants, the rotational viscosity and the combination of Leslie viscosity coefficients. Moreover, the uniformity of LC layer thickness and quality of the alignment on the surfaces can be determined.