Molecular Alignment in SmLC Cells Having a Surface Layer with INS Phase Sequence

Abstract

In smectic liquid crystals (SmLCs) having no nematic (N) phase in the phase sequence, such as antiferroelectric SmLCs and SmLCs with V-shaped electrooptical switching, it is hard to obtain the LC media which have a uniform molecular alignment structure. This is because the transition of isotropic (Iso) phase directly to Sm phase during the cooling gives rise to a non-uniform Sm layer structure due to the both occurance of molecular alignment and Sm layer formation at the same time. We propose an idea to fabricate defect-free SmLC cells in which the uniform Sm layer structure is realized by the use of an intervening surfacial LC layer with Iso-N-Sm (INS) phase sequence.