A New Bistable SmA Display Mode

ORAL

Abstract

In the traditional SmA display, crossed polarizers are absent and one can switch a light transparent state to an opaque light scattering state by using laser addressing or electric addressing. Such displays are bright, but of only moderate contrast ratio. Here, we present a new operation mode for a SmA display using two sets of electrodes, with one to induce homeotropic orientation and the other having an in-plane structure to induce planar orientation. This switching with crossed polarizer and analyzer enables a high contrast, bistable electro-optical effect. This SmA display mode exhibits a high contrast ratio (2500:1) for non-striped ITO pattern cells, prefect bistability, and reasonably fast switching (a few ms). These characteristics may enable potential applications on e-paper.

*NSC (Taiwan) Grant No. NSC 95-2917-I-033-003 and NSF MRSEC Grant DMR 02-13918 (USA)

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Authors

  • Hui-Yu Chen

    • Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309

  • Renfan Shao

    • Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309

  • Eva Korblova

    • 3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309

  • David Walba

    • 3Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309

  • Wei Lee

    • Department of Physics, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan 32023

  • Noel A. Clark

    • Department of Physics and Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80309