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Abstract
A liquid crystal display (LCD) mode based on non‐oriented samples of bent‐core molecules is presented. The display uses an optically isotropic phase, which is relatively common in bent‐core compounds. The LCD switches between the isotropic phase (off‐state), and a conventional SmCP phase (on‐state) that gives rise to the bright state. The device exhibits good performance: fast response (∼0.1 ms), quite large contrast ratio (>100:1), continuous grey levels and wide viewing angle. These characteristics have been observed down to 80°C. Other remarkable advantages are the robustness of the cells and the simplicity of their preparation, since the material need not be aligned.
Acknowledgements
Two of us (I.A. and J.M) thank the Ministry of Education of Spain and the Basque Country Government for a grant. We thank Dr M.B. Ros for supplying the material under test. This work was supported by the CICYT‐FEDER of Spain‐EU (Project No. MAT2003‐07806‐C02) and the University of the Basque Country (Project No. 9/UPV 00060.310‐13562/2001).