P-144: Electrooptic response of FLC: Effect of alignment materials

In this paper, parameters of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLC) with different alignment materials, which include Nylon 6 with rubbing method, photoaligned azo-dye layer SD1 and new photosensitive material from DIC, were investigated. The effects of alignment layer on contrast ratio, response time and switching of FLC are provided. Asymmetric boundary conditions, with only one of ITO surfaces is covered with the aligning layer while the other one is not, have been used for providing both high contrast ratio and defect free orientation. It is indicated that SD1 is suitable for FLC alignment, with which switching time of 65μs and contrast of 500:1 are obtained at room temperature, and switching time decreases with higher temperature.