Electro-Optics of the Hybrid Nematic Cell

Abstract

The first experimental data on the electro-optical properties of a hybrid aligned nematic cell submitted to an electric field are reported. Our theoretical treatment accounts for the observed behavior under an A. C. field, whereas the agreement in the D. C. case is not very good. This anomalous behavior can be explained by taking into account the flexoelectric characteristics of the examined cell. We show that, at small fields, the flexoelectric effect plays the role of changing the anchoring energy for the planar alignment.