Surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal devices
First Claim
1. A liquid crystal device comprising:
- a quantity of ferroeletric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal, forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers;
first means, transverse to and contiguous with at least a portion of as surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said first means at a first angle Ω
1 (α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
1 (α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a first plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said first plane; and
second means, transverse to and contiguous with at least a portion of an opposite surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said second means at a second angle Ω
2 (α
) from the normal to said second means, said angle Ω
2 (α
) being a predetermined function of α
which is different from said function of said angle Ω
1 (α
), the distances between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of a electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A liquid crystal device including a ferroelectric liquid crystal disposed between plates treated to enforce a particular ferroelectric molecular orientation to the plates. The devices employ alone or in combination non-planar boundary conditions, polar boundary conditions, boundaries with multiple physical states, intrinsic spontaneous splay distortion of the polarization orientation field, combined ferroelectric and dielectric torques, layers tilted with respect to the plates. The plates are spaced by a distance sufficiently small to ensure unwinding of the helix typical in a bulk of the material to form either monostable, bistable or multistable states which exhibit novel electro-optic properties. The liquid crystal is responsive to an externally applied electric field, temperature or the like to make a light valve or other electro-optical device.
64 Citations
47 Claims
-
1. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroeletric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal, forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; first means, transverse to and contiguous with at least a portion of as surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said first means at a first angle Ω
1 (α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
1 (α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a first plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said first plane; andsecond means, transverse to and contiguous with at least a portion of an opposite surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said second means at a second angle Ω
2 (α
) from the normal to said second means, said angle Ω
2 (α
) being a predetermined function of α
which is different from said function of said angle Ω
1 (α
), the distances between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of a electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A liquid crystal electro-optical device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystals having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; first means, transverse to and continguous with a surface of said layers for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said first means at a first angle Ω
1 (α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
1 (α
) being predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle (α
) being an angle between a reference vector in a first plane parallel to said frist means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said first plane;second means, transverse to and contiguous with an opposite surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said second means at a second angle Ω
2 (α
) from the normal to said second means, said angle Ω
2 (α
) being a predetermined function of α
which is different from said function of said angle Ω
1 (α
) the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations;means for applying an electric field to at least a portion of said layers, said electric field having a significant component parallel to said layers, and for reversing the direction of said electric field, the strength of said electric field being sufficient to shift the long axes of molecules in said portion of said layers from one of said stable orientations to another of said stable orientations; and means for processing light passing through said liquid crystal so that light passing through a portion of said liquid crystal having one of said stable orientations can be distinguished from light passing through said same portion of said liquid crystal having other of said stable orientations. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-
-
38. A liquid crystal electro-optical device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystals having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; first means, transverse to and contiguous with a surface of said layers and capable of assuming any of a plurality of structural states, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said first means at a first angle Ω
1 (α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
1`(α
) being a predetermined function of both an angle α and
the structural state of said first means, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a first plane parallel to said first plane;second means, transverse to and contiguous with an opposite surface of said layers, for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent to said second means at a second angle Ω
2 (α
) from the normal to said second means, said angle Ω
2 (α
) being a function of said angle α
, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of as plurality of stable orientations;means for applying an electric field to at least a portion of said layers, said electric field having a significant component parallel to said layers, and for reversing the direction of said electric field, the strength of said electric field being sufficient to shift the long axes of molecules in said portion and to alter said structural state of said first means to produce a shift in the long axes in said portion from one of said stable orientations to another of said stable orientations; and means for processing light passing through said liquid crystal so that light passing through a portion of said liquid crystal having one of said stable orientations can be distinguished from light passing through said same portion of said liquid crystal having other of said stable orientations.
-
-
39. A liquid crystal electro-optical device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis and a ferroelectric polarization vector parallel to said layers, said moles forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; first and second means, transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least one of said first and second means for ferroelectrical coupling with and aligning said polarization vectors of said molecules adjacent to said at least one of said first and second means at a predetemrined angle with respect to said first and second means, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the asbsence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume a stable orientation; means for applying an electric field to at least a portion of said layers, said field being perpendicular to said first and second means, the strength of said field being sufficient to shift said long axes of said molecules from said stable orientation to a different orientation; and means for processing light passing through said liquid crystal so that light passing through portions of said liquid crystal having said stable orientation can be distinguished from light passing through portions of said liquid crystal having said different orientation. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41)
-
-
42. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecules having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle and undefined for certain values of α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations.
-
-
43. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said moles of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said moles adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal for said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations, said first and second means also for inducing splay in the polarization field of said liquid crystal homogeneously over at least a substantial portion of said first and second means.
-
-
44. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and continuous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto at an angle α
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations, said second means also for aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto but not as strongly as said first means align said molecules adjacent thereto homogeneously over at least a substantial portion of said first and second means.
-
-
45. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said moles adjacent thereto at an angle 5/8(α
) from the normal to said first means, and angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations, said first and second means both also for inducing unsymmetric anisotropic conical conditions on said long axes but having different directions of anisotropy homogeneously over at least a substantial portion of said first and second means.
-
-
46. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis, said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystal forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said moles adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, a selected substantial portion of said first means aligning said long axes more strongly than the remainder of said first means in a predetermined manner, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations.
-
-
47. A liquid crystal device comprising:
-
a quantity of ferroelectric liquid crystal having a plurality of adjacently disposed layers each comprised of a plurality of molecules, each molecule having a long axis said molecules of said layers in a bulk of said liquid crystals forming helices having axes perpendicular to said layers; and first and second means, each transverse to and contiguous with said layers, for containing said liquid crystal, at least said first means aligning the long axes of said molecules adjacent thereto at an angle Ω
(α
) from the normal to said first means, said angle Ω
(α
) being a predetermined function of an angle α
, said angle α
being an angle between a reference vector in a plane parallel to said first means and a projection of said long axes of said molecules onto said plane, the distance between said first and second means being less than the distance at which said helices form in the absence of an electric field, said first and second means causing said long axes to assume one of a plurality of stable orientations, said molecules and at least said second means each having polarization vectors, coupling between said polarization vectors being sufficiently weak to enable switching between a plurality of stable states while favoring certain of said stable states.
-
Specification