Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.449, 33-45, 2006
On a simple way for obtaining important material constants of a nematic liquid crystal: Longitudinal flexoelectric domains under the joint action of DC and AC voltages
The threshold characteristics U-c (U-ac), q(c) (U-ac) and q(c) (U-c), where U-c is the d.c. threshold voltage, Uac is a high-frequency orienting voltage with a frequency above 5000 Hz, and qc is the threshold wave number of the flexoelectric domains of Vistin'-Pikin-Bobylev, excited under the joint action of a d.c. voltage and a high-frequency orienting voltage, have been theoretically calculated for the case of anisotropic elasticity. These domains have been experimentally obtained in the nematic liquid crystal p-n-butyl-p-methoxyazoxy-benzene (BMAOB). The fitting of the experimental points by the theoretical curves permitted to obtain precisely the elastic constants of splay K-11 and twist K-22, and the modulus of the difference between the flexoelectric coefficients of splay e(1z) and bend e(3x); vertical bar e(1z) - e(3x)vertical bar, for a Delta epsilon, varying between -0.20 and -0.25.