Optical characteristics of liquid-crystal domains probed by a focused laser beam

Abstract

A technique for determining the optical characteristics of the domain structures of nematic liquid crystals using a focused laser beam is presented. The dependences of the intensity of polarized light on the voltage of a separate nematic domain formed by a polycarbonate surface in the presence of a magnetic field are obtained. It is shown that the optical characteristics cannot be interpreted within the framework of the concept of light scattering, which is suitable in the case of an ensemble of domains probed by a wide laser beam. The analysis of the results is based on the assumption of gradient index optics.