Fabrication of Defect-Free Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Cells Using Alignment Films Rubbed in Antiparallel Direction

Abstract

The fabrication of operable surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals (SSFLCs) is often hampered by the occurrence of zigzag defects. In this study, we try to fabricate a defect-free SSFLC with antiparallel-rubbed films that exhibit different properties between two substrates for the energy condition in two types of chevron to be different. As a result, the occurrence of zigzag defects can be suppressed as the differences in anchoring strength and pretilt angle increase between two alignment films, and then in the case of the large differences in physical properties, zigzag defect-free SSFLCs can be obtained.