Chiral Additive Effects on Bend Growth Rate for an Optically Compensated Bend-Mode Liquid Crystal Display

Abstract

We investigated bend growth processes for an optically compensated bend (OCB)-mode liquid crystal display. The bend growth consists of two transformations. i.e., the transformation from symmetric splay alignment to bend alignment and that from asymmetric splay alignment to bend alignment. We observed the temperature dependence of bend growth processes and detected the asymmetric splay-to-bend transformation at 0 °C. We investigated the kinetic effects of a chiral additive on the bend growth processes in three directions, i.e., the same as, and opposite and perpendicular to the rubbing direction. The chiral additive did not affect the symmetric splay-to-bend transformation, however, it was found to accelerate the asymmetric splay-to-bend transformation in all three directions. This acceleration is attributed to the chirality-induced coexistence of top and bottom splay alignments in the asymmetric splay regions.