Light scattering from nematic liquid crystals during transient time

Abstract

Measurements of the scattering of He-Ne laser light from nematic liquid crystals during transient time induced by an electric field have been made both on a simple homogeneously aligned cell and a 90° twisted cell. The nematic liquid crystal used in this experiment is a mixture of pentyl-cyano-biphenyl and hexyloxy-cyano-biphenyl of 4 : 1 by weight. The response waveforms of the scattered light intensity are dependent on the scattering angles and on the polarization of both the incident and the outgoing light. Moreover, the scattering distribution pattern depends strongly on the polarization of the light. These results can be partially explained by orientation fluctuations and relaxation of directors.