Orthoconic antiferroelectric liquid crystals
Journal article, 2013

The ubiquitous liquid crystal display (LCD) is based on nematic liquid crystals (LCs) and has during 40 years developed from simple few digit displays into high-resolution flat-panel displays. A last and very important step towards the present TVs was the combination with thin film transistors that also led to the introduction of several new switching modes. Despite the enormous success of this technology, there is presently a renewed interest in LCs with faster electrooptic response, especially for future 3D vision display systems and possibly for field-sequential-colour (FSC) generation displays. Here, I focus on the so-called orthoconic antiferroelectric LCs (OAFLCs), which can provide the fast switching of conventional antiferroelectric LCs, but combined with a potentially much higher optical contrast. The reason is that the dark state of orthconic materials has a homeotropic optic axis, which makes the extinction ideally complete between crossed polarisers and independent of in-plane alignment fluctuations characteristic of all antiferroelectric LCs. The basic features and device physics issues of orthoconic LCs are reviewed and the most important remaining challenges to be met in terms of materials development are discussed in this article. Furthermore, a few examples of new applications made possible with the use of present and future orthoconic materials are given. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

orthoconic

antiferroelectric liquid crystals

electrooptics

optics

applications

Author

Per Rudquist

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Electronics Material and Systems

Liquid Crystals

0267-8292 (ISSN) 1366-5855 (eISSN)

Vol. 40 12 1678-1697

Subject Categories

Other Engineering and Technologies

Areas of Advance

Materials Science

DOI

10.1080/02678292.2013.828331

More information

Latest update

1/25/2022