title: Evaluation of Kerr constant of blue-phase liquid crystals by measuring off-axis retardation in vertical electric field cells.
abstract: Because of the nonuniform electric field of the in-plane-switching cell in the thickness direction, an accurate and efficient way for evaluating the Kerr constant of blue-phase liquid crystal (BPLC) needs to be developed. This study demonstrates a method for evaluating the Kerr constant by measuring the off-axis-induced retardation (R(th)) change in normal vertical field cells using a commercial polarimeter. The angle-dependent behavior of the R(th) change is observed as an electric-tunable positive C retarder. In this paper, a sigmoid fitting model has been chosen for calculating the Kerr constant for considering the very small intrinsic birefringence of the BPLC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. pjhsieh@itri.org.tw
authors.forename: Pao-Ju
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Huang-Ming Philip
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chen