A Technique for Director Profiling Utilising Convergent Beam Excitation of Fully-Leaky Guided Modes

Abstract

The recently developed Fully-Leaky Guided Mode (FLGM) technique has paved the way for using optical waveguiding to study standard commercial cells. Previous FLGM experiments have utilised a plane-polarised collimated beam to excite optical modes. Here we describe the use of an alternative convergent beam procedure. The Convergent Beam Guided Mode (CBGM) technique has in addition the potential to be used to explore switching dynamics and single pixels. The work presented here is a demonstration of the CBGM technique via a study of the static director profile of a pi-cell (parallel rubbed) filled with the nematic liquid crystal material E7.

Key Words:

• optics
• liquid crystal
• guided-mode
• fully-leaky
• convergent beam