Abstract

Surface effects are of prime importance in the field of liquid crystal (LC) both for basic understanding of phyisical phenomena and for device applications. At a LC free surface, it is possible that both the positional and the orientational anchorings are weak, as the molecules are now free to move on or away from the surface and the anisotropic interactions are solely among the LC molecules. In this talk, we report the first laser–induced Freedericksz transition (LIFT) [1] studies of such a surface–anchoring effect.

© 1988 Optical Society of America