Flexoelectrically controlled surface bistable switching in nematic liquid crystals

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Abstract
A new bistable surface switching device using nematic liquid crystals in bookshelflike geometry is presented. The surface bistability is controlled by an external pulsed electric field of defined polarity, which breaks the surface anchoring and selects the final state from dielectric and flexoelectric couplings. A writing time of 32 μs and an optical response time of 300 μs are achieved, for a field of 18 V across a 1 μm thick cell. This simple nematic optical device presents properties directly comparable with those of ferroelectric liquid crystals displays: bistability, sharp threshold, fast address time.