Abstract
Consumer demand for high resolution and high refresh-rate displays has naturally led to the fabrication of liquid crystal displays with ever smaller pixels. As a consequence, fringing fields between adjacent pixels grow in magnitude, leading to abrupt changes in orientation. Electric field strengths above some threshold can lead to order melting and, in turn, disclinations. This paper presents accurate modeling of disclinations induced by fringing fields due to interdigitated electrodes in a nematic liquid crystal calculated by means of the Landau–de Gennes theory. Disclination paths are determined while taking into account the flow of the liquid crystal. Making use of interdigitated electrodes, precise electrical control over the creation and positioning of defects is demonstrated for homeotropic, planar, hybrid, and in-plane surface alignments.
Highlights
This paper presents accurate modelling of disclinations induced by fringing fields due to interdigitated electrodes in a nematic liquid crystal calculated by means of the Landau-de Gennes theory
As liquid crystal displays increase in resolution and complexity there is a tendency for defects to form in the liquid crystal layer, induced by strong electric fields or geometrical features
Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) for electrical hologram generation based on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) panels are available[2] with pixel-pitches of 3.74 μm
Summary
As liquid crystal displays increase in resolution and complexity there is a tendency for defects to form in the liquid crystal layer, induced by strong electric fields or geometrical features. Disclinations can be of high density, playing an important and potentially advantageous role in device operation Such fringing-field induced disclinations are the product of pincement, an effect which is well studied in liquid crystal cells with planar alignment[4,5,6,7,8] or in multi-domain structures[9]. Conditions necessary to create disclinations are explored for homeotropic, planar, hybrid and in-plane surface alignments with both positive and negative dielectric anisotropy liquid crystals Both the anchoring strength and device proportions have a profound influence on threshold voltages required to induce disclinations, as demonstrated in sections IX and X. The more general variational theory proposed by Sonnet[32], reduces to an equivalent set of equations when the Rayleigh dissipation functional is restricted to be a bilinear form in Nαβ and Aαβ and up to quadratic order in Q
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