A high-speed measurement method for reflective liquid crystal cells using a liquid crystal polarization-converting device

We propose a novel measurement method for determining cell parameters, such as a cell thickness and twist angle in reflective liquid crystal (LC) cells, by using a unique polarization-converting device prepared with a circularly and homogeneously aligned LC (CH-LC) cell. The light intensity distributions from the reflective LC cell transmitted twice through the CH-LC cell are measured by a charge-coupled device array camera. Cell thickness can be derived by using coordinate values of local minimum spot in the spatial light intensity distribution measured at one wavelength, where the pretilt angle is assumed to be the designed value. Both cell thickness and twist angle can also be determined by two local minimum positions of the light intensity at two different wavelengths and the effects of a quarter-wave plate are discussed.