High Voltage Birefringence Measurements of Elastic Constants

Abstract It is shown that the birefringence change associated with an electric field-induced planar to homeotropic Freedericksz transition can be linearly related to the applied voltage for large director deformations. Values for the bend:splay elastic constant ratio can be obtained from a linear fit of voltage to inverse birefringence, Experimental results are presented for 5CB which are in reasonable agreement with values obtained by other techniques.