Negative dielectric anisotropy nematic liquid crystals confined to high pretilt pi-cells undergo a discontinuous, disclination mediated transition between a splayed and a twisted director configuration. A critical voltage, Us, exists at which the two states are in equilibrium and hence the movement of disclination lines ceases. We show that measurement of Us provides a simple and convenient means to determine the splay elastic constant, K11, of the liquid crystal to an accuracy of 10% or better.
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