Abstract

The inertial effect of liquid crystals (LCs) in living organisms has been speculated about previously.¹ More recently, LC-director-associated soliton propagation in nematic LCs has been observed under mechanical excitation,²·³ However, quantitative results on the inertial moment of the LC director have not been reported. In this paper, theoretical analysis and experimental results on the inertial effects of LC directors are presented. The Inertia- induced overshoot time was observed and characterized. This overshoot time is found to depend on the LC thickness, applied voltage, and temperature. From the voltage-dependent overshoot time measurements, the inertial moment of the LC directors Is determined for the first time to our knowledge.

© 1986 Optical Society of America