Abstract
Three director profiles of nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cells
are presented to elucidate the mechanism of light leakage induced
by some defects hidden in NLC cells. In accordance with Landau-de
Gennes theory, we simulated the dynamics of these defect profiles
using the 2-D finite-difference iterative method and calculated their
transmittance using the Jones calculus. Results show that light leakage
induced by these defects is caused by spontaneous azimuthal twisting
of the director when no electric field is applied. Spontaneous distortion
occurs only in the director field around defects and depends on larger
nematic anisotropies. The light leakage intensity in cells I and II
differs because of difference in the defect structures of the cells.
Regardless of the cell type, light leakage is exacerbated when the
surface anchoring strength is nonuniform. Light leakage disappears
at a critical value of electric field
$E_{c}$
. However, a very strong
static electric field
$E_{c}^{\ast}$
is necessary to force the light leakage
to disappear when the flexoelectric effect is considered.
© 2015 IEEE
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