Computational physics approaches to light transmission through a twisted nematic liquid crystal slab

Abstract

We consider light propagation through a twisted nematic liquid crystal. At first, an expression for light transmission is obtained using a rather intuitive approach. Secondly, an accurate solution for light transmission based on Maxwell's equations is derived and compared with the previous one. Both approaches show that when changes in the orientation of the liquid crystal optical axis are small on the scale defined by the optical wavelength (Mauguin limit), the polarization of light approximately follows the optical axis. At the same time, even in this limit, the simple formula for the light transmittance mentioned in some monographs on liquid crystal displays is not necessary accurate. Conditions under which the two approaches give the same expression for the light transmission are found. In addition, two numerical methods for finding the light transmittance are considered. It is demonstrated that the Gauss-Seidel method has much faster convergence rate than the Euler method.