Foreword. Series Editor's Foreword. Preface. 1. Liquid crystal physics.* Introduction.* Thermodynamics and statistic physics.* Orientational order.* Elastic properties of liquid crystals.* Response of liquid crystals to electro-magnetic fields.* Anchoring effects of nematic liquid crystal at surfaces. 2. Propagation of light in anisotropic optical medium.* Electromagnetic wave.* Polarization.* Propagation of light in uniform anisotropic optical media.* Propagation of light in cholesteric liquid crystals. 3. Optical modeling methods.* Jones matrix method.* Mueller matrix method.* Berreman 4x4 method. 4. Effects of Electric field on Liquid Crystals.* Dielectric interaction.* Flexoelectric Effect.* Ferroelectricity in liquid crystals. 5. Freedericksz transition.* Calculus of variation.* The Fredeericksz transition: statics.* The Freedericksz transition: dynamics. 6. Liquid Crystal Materials.* Introduction.* Refractive indices.* Dielectric constants.* Rotational Viscosity.* Elastic constant.* Figure-of-merits.* Refractive index matching between liquid crystals and polymers. 7. Modeling of liquid crystal director configuration.* Electric energy of liquid crystals.* Modeling electric field.* Simulation of liquid crystal director configuration. 8. Transmissive liquid crystal display.* Introduction.* Twisted nematic cells.* In plane switching (IPS) mode.* Vertical alignment (VA) mode.* Multi-domain Vertical Alignment (MVA) Cells.* Optically compensated bend (OCB) cell. 9. Reflective and Trasreflective display.* Introduction.* Reflective liquid crystal displays.* Transflector.* Classification of Transflective LCDs.* Dual-cell-gap Transflective LCDs.* Single-cell-gap Transflective LCDs.* Performance of transflective LCDs. 10. Liquid crystal display matrices, drive schemes and bistable displays.* Segmented displays.* Passive matrix displays and drive scheme.* Active Matrix Displays.* Bistable ferroelectric liquid crystal displays and drive scheme.* Bistable nematic displays.* Bistable cholesteric reflective display. 11. Liquid crystal/polymer composites. * Introduction.* Phase separation.* Scattering properties of liquid crystal/polymer composites.* Polymer dispersed liquid crystals.* Polymer stabilization liquid crystals.* Displays from liquid crystal/polymer composites. 12. Tunable liquid crystal photonic devices. * Introduction.* Laser beam steering.* Variable Optical Attenuators.* Tunable-Focus Lens.* Polarization-Independent LC Devices. Index.

Fundamentals of Liquid Crystal Devices

A bistable nematic liquid crystal device cell is provided with a surface alignment grating on at least one cell wall and a surface treatment on the other wall. Such treatment may be a homeotropic alignment or a planar alignment with or without an alignment direction, and zero or a non zero pretilt. The surface profile on the monograting is asymmetric with its groove height to width selected to give approximately equal energy within the nematic material in its two allowed alignment arrangements. The monograting may be formed by a photolithographic process or by embossing of a plastics material. The cell is switched by dc pulses coupling to a flexoelectric coefficient in the material, or by use of a two frequency addressing scheme and a suitable two frequency material. Polarisers either side of the cell distinguish between the two switched states. The cell walls may be rigid or flexible, and are coated with electrode structures, e.g. in row and column format giving an x,y matrix of addressable pixels on the cell.

Bistable nematic liquid crystal device

Two distinct, stable alignment states have been observed for a nematic liquid crystal confined in a layer with thickness of 12μm and in square wells with sides of length between 20 and 80μm. The director lies in the plane of the layer and line defects occur in two corners of the squares. The positions of the defects determine whether the director orientation is across the diagonal or is parallel to two opposite edges of the square. The device is multistable because both the diagonal and parallel states are stable when rotated by multiples of 90° in plane.

/pdf/multistable-alignment-states-in-nematic-liquid-crystal-4dmeygn7w5.pdf

Multistable alignment states in nematic liquid crystal filled wells

Nematic liquid crystal materials are rod-like molecules that align in a locally common direction called the director. This gives rise to anisotropic properties that are used in electro-optical devices such as displays, which usually consist of a sandwich of material between two substrates. The behavior of the director at the substrate surfaces is a critical design consideration, and a wide variety of surface treatments has been reported. Most are dominated by molecular interactions, e.g., high surface energy materials that give homogeneous alignment (the director parallel to substrate). The elastic properties of nematics can also be used to influence alignment by shaping the surface on the micron scale. The potential that this offers to engineer device properties is relatively unexplored; to date, the majority of results reported concentrate on essentially two-dimensional effects. Here we show that the three-dimensional configuration of nematics around microscopic posts results in multiple stable director orientations, and can be used in particular to implement bistable displays with a broad range of control over the optical and switching properties.

Controllable alignment of nematic liquid crystals around microscopic posts: Stabilization of multiple states

Electric‐field‐induced switching between equilibrium configurations in certain bistable liquid‐crystal geometries is governed by the motion of disclinations, propelled by elastic distortions of the equilibrium states subjected to applied fields. In this paper and the next (paper II), we describe the distortions and energies of bistable planar horizontal and vertical states, and nonplanar twist states in a tilted geometry, using exact numerical solutions of the equilibrium equations as well as a ’’boundary‐layer’’ approximation in the high‐field limit. The calculations illustrate the manner in which the distortions become concentrated in boundary layers within a coherence length from the surface, and show the convergence of the planar and nonplanar vertical states at relatively low fields. Implications for the switching mechanism are discussed. In paper II, the boundary‐layer model is used to describe the forces governing the movement of disclinations in bistable switching, producing a quantitative descrip...

Boundary‐layer model of field effects in a bistable liquid‐crystal geometry

This paper discusses two types of mechanically bistable liquid-crystal display structures, a previously reported type [2], [3] called vertical-horizontal, and a second type, called horizontal-horizontal. In both of them, the director configuration is planar. They are distinguished by the orientation of the director plane, which is perpendicular to the major surfaces of the device in the type called vertical-horizontal, and parallel in the type called horizontal-horizontal. In both types, the bistable states may be differentiated optically by use of a polarizer and dichroic dye, and switching is accomplished electrically by exploiting the dielectric anisotropy of the ordered liquid crystal states. We show calculations of the director configurations, their energy, and optical contrast of the bistable states. The bistable states are topologically distinct, so that the switching transitions are necessarily discontinuous in character. The movement of disclinations governs the switching process, and their detachment forms the basis of stability.

R.N. Thurston

Papers

Mechanically bistable liquid-crystal display structures