Experimental design to measure the anchoring energy on substrate surface by using the alternating-current bridge

The anchoring property of the substrate surface of liquid crystal cells plays an important role in display and nondisplay fields. This property directly affects the deformation of liquid crystal molecules to change the phase difference through liquid crystal cells. In this paper, a test method based on the alternating-current bridge is proposed to determine the capacitance of liquid crystal cells and thus measure the anchoring energy of the substrate surface. The anchoring energy can be obtained by comparing the capacitance-voltage curves of twisted nematic liquid crystal cells with different anchoring properties in experimental and theoretical results simulated on the basis of Frank elastic theory. Compared with the other methods to determine the anchoring energy, our proposed method requires a simple treatment of liquid crystal cells and allows easy and high-accuracy measurements, thereby expanding the test ideas on the performance parameters of liquid crystal devices.

Influences of surface and flexoelectric polarization on the effective anchoring energy in nematic liquid crystal

The physical effects on surface and flexoelectric polarization in a weak anchoring nematic liquid crystal cell are investigated systematically. We derive the analytic expressions of two effective anchoring energies for lower and upper substrates respectively as well as their effective anchoring strengths and corresponding tilt angles of effective easy direction.All of these quantities are relevant to the magnitudes of both two polarizations and the applied voltage U. Based on these expressions, the variations of effective anchoring strength and the tilt angle with the applied voltage are calculated for the fixed values of two polarizations. For an original weak anchoring hybrid aligned nematic cell, it may be equivalent to a planar cell for a small value of U and has a threshold voltage. The variation of reduced threshold voltage with reduced surface polarization strength is also calculated. The role of surface polarization is important without the adsorptive ions considered.

Anchoring properties of substrate with a grating surface

The anchoring properties of substrate with a grating surface are investigated analytically. The alignment of nematic liquid crystal （NLC） in a grating surface originates from two mechanisms, thus the anchoring energy consists of two parts. One originates from the interaction potential between NLC molecules and the molecules on the substrate surface, and the other stems from the increased elastic strain energy. Based on the two mechanisms, the expression of anchoring energy per unit area of a projected plane of this grating surface is deduced and called the equivalent anchoring energy formula. Both the strength and the easy direction of equivalent anchoring energy are a function of the geometrical parameters （amplitude and pitch） of a grating surface. By using this formula, the grating surface can be replaced by its projected plane and its anchoring properties can be described by the equivalent anchoring energy formula.

Azimuthal anchoring of a nematic liquid crystal on a grooved interface with anisotropic polar anchoring

Zhang Y J et al.[Zhang Y J,Zhang Z D,Zhu L Z and Xuan L 2011 Liquid Cryst.38 355] investigated the effects of finite polar anchoring on the azimuthal anchoring energy at a grooved interface,in which polar anchoring was isotropic in the local tangent plane of the surface.In this paper,we investigate the effects of both isotropic and anisotropic polar anchoring on the surface anchoring energy in the frame of Fukuda et al.’s theory.The results show that anisotropic polar anchoring strengthens the azimuthal anchoring of grooved surfaces.In the one-elastic-constant approximation（K11 = K22 = K33 = K）,the surface-groove-induced azimuthal anchoring energy is entirely consistent with the result of Faetti,and it reduces to the original result of Berreman with an increase in polar anchoring.Moreover,the contribution of the surface-like elastic term to the Rapini-Papoular anchoring energy is zero.

Threshold property of a nematic liquid crystal cell with two grating surface substrates

A grating surface can drive the liquid crystal molecules to orientate along the direction parallel or vertical to the projected plane of the grating surface. The nematic liquid crystal （NLC） cell manufactured with two pre-treated grating surface substrates may realize the vertical display, parallel display and twist display. In this paper, the threshold property of this NLC cell is investigated systematically. With the Frank elastic theory and the equivalent anchoring energy formula of grating surface substrate, the analytic expressions of the threshold voltage related to three displays are obtained, which are dependent on their geometrical parameters such as amplitude ~ and pitch A of the grating surface substrate. For a certain anchoring strength, the threshold voltage increases or decreases with the increase of the value δ/λ of the different displays.

Quartic coupling and its effect on wetting behaviors in nematic liquid crystals

Based on the fact that rubbed groove patterns also affect the anchoring of liquid crystals at substrates,a quartic coupling is included in constructing the surface energy for a liquid crystal cell.The phase diagram and the wetting behaviors of the liquid crystal cell,bounded by surfactant-laden interfaces in a magnetic field perpendicular to the substrate are discussed by taking the quartic coupling into account.The nematic order increases at the surface while it decreases in the bulk as a result of the introduction of quartic substrate-liquid crystal coupling,indicating that the groove anchoring makes the liquid crystal molecules align more orderly near the substrate than away from it.This causes a different wetting behavior：complete wetting.