Electro-optical Performance of a Self-Compensating Vertically-Aligned Liquid Crystal Display Mode

Abstract

Very recently, a novel homeotropic nematic liquid crystal display (LCD) with excellent grayscale performance has been introduced. This rub-free mode adopts the homeotropic alignment in the off-state and switching is controlled by an in-plane field. It has electrically-induced dual domain-like director configuration. In this work, we simulate the electro-optical behavior of this device to optimize its performance. We investigate the dependence of electro-optical performance on cell thickness and electrode gap distance. The angular dependence is also studied, which shows the effect of self-compensation. The viewing angle characteristics are investigated in terms of transmission, contrast, gray scale, and chromaticity. We find from modeling that the director configuration above the electrodes is well behaved and masking of the electrodes is unnecessary. In fact, this homeotropic mode has better performance if the electrodes are unmasked.