Measurement of the Sum (<i>e</i>₁ + <i>e</i>₃) of the Flexoelectric Coefficients<i>e</i>₁and<i>e</i>₃of Nematic Liquid Crystals using a Hybrid Aligned Nematic (HAN) cell

Abstract

A hybrid aligned nematic cell (HAN) is often used to measure the sum (e 1 + e 3) of the flexoelectric coefficients e 1 and e 3. However, a HAN cell has the difficulty of an internal offset voltage (internal bias) caused by the homeotropic alignment. We present a method to determine the internal bias and then take it into account in the flexoelectric measurement.