Investigation and control of domain formation in ferroelectric liquid crystal devices

Abstract

This paper explores the causes of domain nucleation and investigates methods to control the location and threshold of defect sites. By observing the reappearance of invisible defect sites after full annealing it was determined that intrinsic surface features are able to seed nucleation. Intentional modification of the surface topology was investigated and found to have a dramatic influence on domain nucleation and growth. Some applications that might benefit from this direct control over domain nucleation are discussed.