title: Lifting degeneracy in nematic liquid crystal viscosities with a single optical measurement.
abstract: The viscosity of complex, anisotropic fluids, such as liquid crystals or their colloidal suspensions, is characterized by a number of coefficients. Methods to measure them are, typically, sensitive only to their particular combinations, hence unable to determine them individually. Using an Ericksen-Leslie model and propagation of light through aligned layers of such materials, we show theoretically and verify experimentally how this degeneracy can be lifted by exploiting both the amplitude and frequency of the voltage applied to the cell as control parameters.
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Proctor
authors.affiliation: Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaczmarek
authors.affiliation: Mathematical Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. Electronic address: dales@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: D'Alessandro
keywords: Ericksen-Leslie; Liquid crystals; Optics of liquid crystals; Viscosity measurement; Viscosity of complex fluids; Viscosity of liquid crystals