Measurement of Temperature Behavior of Azimuthal Anchoring Energy at Liquid Crystal/SiO Interface Using New Method

Abstract

By using a new method, we have measured the temperature dependence of the azimuthal anchoring energy at the interface between the nematic liquid crystal of phenyl-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) and 60° obliquely evaporated SiO film. A detailed comparison of our data with that of Faetti is carried out, and a good agreement between these two sets of data is obtained. This result indicates that the new method is very useful to evaluate the azimuthal anchoring energy at a liquid crystal/solid substrate interface.