Importance of Controlling Material Constants to Realize Bistable Uniform States in Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Cells

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The director orientation structures in surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal cells are calculated by minimizing the distortion free energy, F d, and the surface energy, F s. By taking account of K 2 ≠ K 3, it is shown that F d itself stabilizes one kind of twisted state depending on the handedness of the inherent helicoid and the sign of K 3–K 2. It is possible that F d and F s favor different kinds of twisted states. This results in the potential conclusion that the critical thickness for realizing uniform states could be designed to be fairly large by the proper choice of material constants and surface conditions.