Effect of cell thickness on electroclinic liquid crystal response time

Anno Hermanns; Christopher Wilson; Jayantilal S. Patel; Kirsten A. Grueneberg; Kerry S. Nelson; Angela Townsend-Booth; Banahalli R. Ratna

doi:10.1117/12.304535

1 April 1998 Effect of cell thickness on electroclinic liquid crystal response time

Anno Hermanns, Christopher Wilson, Jayantilal S. Patel, Kirsten A. Grueneberg, Kerry S. Nelson, Angela Townsend-Booth, Banahalli R. Ratna

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3297, Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices, and Applications VI; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.304535
Event: Photonics West '98 Electronic Imaging, 1998, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Electroclinic liquid crystals (ELCs) with their high speed, large contrast, gray scale response and large tilt angles at low operating voltages are highly attractive for use in AMLCDs featuring high frame rate, high resolution, and time sequential color. However, ELC response time usually rises significantly as the applied field is reduced, and has been found to increase as the cell gap is reduced for low operating voltage, high viewing angle devices. We investigate these effects using three alignment layers [polyimide, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) and a photo-dimerized monolayer (PDML)] at several cell gaps and temperatures with a specific ELC. In the case of PBT we find that switching is faster than in the standard polyimide case. Furthermore, thin PBT cells switch faster than thick PBT cells. We also explore a novel single-sided PBT alignment layer scheme, made possible by the in-plane alignment and switching of ELCs. In such a cell, the response time levels off to a constant value at low applied fields, while alignment quality remains high. We conclude that the slowing of the ELC response with decreasing cell gap and decreasing applied field can be reduced substantially by the choice and number of alignment layers.

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Anno Hermanns, Christopher Wilson, Jayantilal S. Patel, Kirsten A. Grueneberg, Kerry S. Nelson, Angela Townsend-Booth, and Banahalli R. Ratna "Effect of cell thickness on electroclinic liquid crystal response time", Proc. SPIE 3297, Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices, and Applications VI, (1 April 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.304535

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