Fast electro-optical response of a cell with a homeoplanar layer of a nematic liquid crystal

The refraction of light, i.e., the turn of an extraordinary ray in the liquid crystal layer similar to total internal reflection at an interface between two media, has been studied in a cell with the homeoplanar orientation of the director. The rise, τ_on, and decay, τ_off, times of optical responses have been obtained for various angles of incidence of light on a liquid crystal layer subjected to an electric field. The times τ_on and τ_off of optical responses for the angles of incidence much larger than the angle of total internal reflection are 1–2 ms, which is three orders of magnitude smaller than the relaxation time of an optical response in the case of normal incidence of the ray.