Two-dimensional snapshot measurement of surface variation of anchoring in liquid crystal cells

Enhanced, photoactive response can be realised by integrating liquid crystals with photoalignment or photoconductive alignment layers. Such cells, asymmetric by design, need to be monitored for the stability and uniformity, especially in the regions exposed to light. In this work, we report on an integrated, versatile model and technique to characterise their core parameters as well as more subtle effects, such as the strength of anchoring energy. The snapshot method also provides two-dimensional maps of the cells' thickness, pretilt angle and uniformity.