Spectral method for fast measurement of twisted nematic liquid crystal cell parameters.

We present an experimental approach for the fast measurement of twisted nematic (TN) liquid crystal (LC) cells' parameters. It is based on the spectral measurements of the light transmitted by the system polarizer-reference wave plate-LC cell-analyzer. The cell parameters are obtained by fitting the theoretical model to the experimental data. This method allows determining the rubbing angle, the twist angle and its sense, and the spectral dispersion of the LC cell retardation, simultaneously, with few measurements and without the need of applying voltage or any specific analytical conditions. The method is validated by characterizing two different TN cells with retardations of about 0.91 and 1.85 μm. The birefringence relative error is less than 1.3%.