A family of polymer dopants has been developed that overcomes the main technical obstacles to large-scale application of ferroelectric liquid crystal devices: manufacturing and stabilizing properly aligned cells. Side-on and End-on side-group liquid crystal polymers that were soluble in an FLC host were identified. These polymer-doped FLCs suppress zigzag defects, yet retain the fast electro-optic responses, good contrast and appropriate tilt angle required for display devices. Side-on SGLCPs were also demonstrated to rapidly and robustly adopt an alignment that enables bistable switching providing the first glimpse into the consequences of orientational coupling in chiral smectic LCs.

Polymer-doped ferroelectric liquid crystals: Towards the stabilization of bookshelf geometry with side group liquid crystal polymers

241st National Meeting (2011)

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