Improvement of Electro-Optical Characteristics of Liquid Crystal Display by Nanoparticle-Embedded Alignment Layers

Abstract

The effect of various metal-oxide nanoparticles embedded in the alignment layer of a liquid crystal (LC) display is experimentally investigated. The study mainly focuses on the electro-optical properties of a twisted-nematic LC display. It is confirmed that a certain type of nanoparticles contribute to the enhancement of contrast ratio. In addition, it is observed that for almost all types of nanoparticles used in the present study, the statistical error of electro-optical properties of LC test cells reduces as compared to that of cells without nanoparticles, indicating the improvement of LC molecular alignment. For a further clarification, AFM study and other related measurements are performed.