Improved Equivalent Circuit Model for V-Shaped, Thresholdless Switching Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

For V-shaped, thresholdless switching ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs), the impedance divider induced by the multilayer structure of FLC cells and the drive circuit play an important role in switching characteristics. In this paper, an equivalent circuit model that can be applied to conventional circuit simulators is proposed for the optical response prediction and drive circuit optimization of V-shaped FLCs. The model is improved from the original model of Moore and Travis; however, the impedance divider is taken into account, and both polar and nonpolar surface anchoring energies are considered to make the model more preferable. The model is then utilized to investigate thresholdless switching characteristics. Simulation results show that the hysteresis inversion frequency fi increases more than one thousand fold with the drive circuit and then decreases with REXT following the relation log fi = -alog REXT + b, and a (b) increases from 0.43 to 0.46 (2.46 to 2.66) as the amplitude of triangular voltage increases from 4 to 10 V, agreeing with experimental results. Also, the same optical transmissions are plotted as different coordinates, as a function of voltage dropping on liquid crystal layer and of drive voltage, and the results show that genuine V-shaped switching is only observed when the transmission is plotted as a function of drive voltage, coinciding with the model suggested by Blinov et al.