Phase separation of monomer in liquid crystal mixtures and surface morphology in polymer-stabilized vertical alignment liquid crystal displays

Abstract

The polymer-stabilized vertically aligned (PS-VA) liquid crystal display (LCD) driving mode has high potential for manufacturing low power consuming displays due to the higher transmittance and fast response as compared with the existing patterned vertically aligned and multi-domain vertically aligned modes. In this paper we have investigated the reaction mechanisms of monomer–liquid crystal blends to form a surface pre-tilt angle of liquid crystal in vertical alignment LCD associated with a fishbone electrode structure. The observed sizes of polymer bumps formed on the substrates were found to be dependent on the exposed UV wavelength and were almost equal in both top and bottom substrates. When a large UV wavelength was used, the phase separation mechanism of monomer in PS-VA mode was found nearly isotropic rather than anisotropic in contrast to the previous studies.