On the measurement of switching parameters of ferroelectric liquid crystal devices: A new method for material assessment

A new method is proposed to assess the switching characteristics of chiral Smectic C mixtures. In this method the minimum in the τ-V curve (Vmin) is measured as a function of the stabilizing AC field and is fitted to an approximate analytical function derived from the uniform switching model of Towler et al. This procedure provides a value for Vmin at infinite AC field stabilization, which gives a cell-independent quantity, allowing improved comparison between materials.

Keywords:

• Ferroelectric liquid crystals
• τV-minimum
• AC stabilization