Fast Turn-Off Switching of Vertically-Aligned Negative Liquid Crystals by Fine Patterning of Pixel Electrodes

Abstract

We investigated the two-dimensional (2D) confinement effect on the switching of vertically-aligned negative liquid crystals (LCs) by an electric field applied between the top and bottom patterned electrodes. When an electric field is applied to a patterned vertical alignment (PVA) cell, virtual walls form in the middle of the gaps between and at the center of the patterned electrodes. These virtual walls formed in a PVA cell results in the turn-off time being dependent on the pitch of the patterned electrodes as well as the cell gap. We found that a short response time can be achieved by the fine patterning of pixel electrodes with little decrease in the transmittance. The obtained numerical results agree well with the model based on the 2D confinement effect of LCs.