Novel alignment technique for surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal

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Abstract
An alignment method for obtaining excellent surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid‐crystal devices is described. Alignment is obtained by obliquely depositing the SiO in two steps. The first deposition involves vacuum coating at 60° angle and the second at 85° (orthogonally to the first) with the substrate normal. The method induces a high (∼20°–25°) pretilt surface which depends on the thickness of the second layer. The glass substrates are matched with antiparallel direction of evaporation of second coating. This ensures a selective pretilt of molecules and the uniformly tilted smectic layer structure. The advantages of this new method are the ease of large‐scale production, defect‐free large uniform monodomains, good contrast, bistability, and microsecond switching speed response.