Improved liquid crystals for vertical alignment applications

Abstract

Liquid crystals with a large negative dielectric anisotropy are difficult to align vertically on silicon oxide surfaces and sometimes even on polyimides. An interesting method has been found to generate high quality vertical alignment by doping the host liquid crystal with materials that have a cyanogroup along their long molecular axis. The effect is explained by considering both long range and short range interactions between liquid crystal and the alignment layer. Using this method we propose a way to design new liquid crystal mixtures with large negative dielectric anisotropy that have improved aligning ability for applications requiring vertical alignment. The method also allows for increased birefringence.