Electro‐optic Effects in Untwisted Nematic Liquid Crystals

Summary

A planar and harmonic wave of light is assumed to propagate through anisotropic liquid crystal layers with refractive indices. Together with a polarizer and an analyser, they generate grey shades controlled by a voltage. For the derivation of these electro‐optic effects, this chapter considers the basic equations for planar harmonic waves. It investigates the polarization of the light while it travels through the Freedericksz cell. The chapter evaluates the results obtained for the Freedericksz cell. The cell operating with the deformation of aligned phases, called the DAP cell, is the inverse of the Freedericksz cell. The search for electro‐optical effects with a larger cell thickness leads to the Hybrid Aligned Nematic cells and the Twisted‐Nematic cells. The chapter investigates the reflective version, because among untwisted cells they have turned out to be more important.