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Abstract
A new method to measure the elastic anisotropy of liquid crystals is presented. The method is based on the determination of the transverse spatial decay of the molecular director profile across the shadow region of a truncated laser beam intense enough to reorient the sample. The effective optical Kerr constant due to laser-induced reorientation is simultaneously obtained.
PACS numbers: 61.30.Gd, 42.65.-k, 64.70.Md