Restricted polymer-stabilised electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystals

ABSTRACT

The electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (ESHFLC) electro-optical mode is characterised by the high contrast and fast response time at low driving voltage. However, the ESHFLC demands several constraints on the alignment layer and the cell gap. However, due to the fundamental characteristics of the ferroelectric liquid crystals, the cone angle decreases at higher temperatures, which is the biggest hurdle for this electro-optical mode to find the real application. In this article, we disclose a restricted polymer stabilisation (with very small polymer concentration in the mixture) for the ESHFLC without pushing other vital parameters out of the range of the constraints for ESHFLCs. The restricted polymer-stabilised ESHFLC shows large temperature range with stable high contrast, fast response time and low driving voltage, thus, it could find application in a range of the modern display and photonic devices.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Electrically suppressed helix ferroelectric liquid crystal
• polymer stabilised
• displays
• electro-optics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by HKUST grants ITP/039/12NP and partner’s State Key Laboratory on Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.