At&t Bell Laboratories

American Telephone and Telegraph, Co.

John W Goodby

Thomas M Leslie

Jayantilal S Patel

John M Geary

Excellent ordering in ferroelectric liquid crystal devices is obtained by utilizing a material having a smectic C phase and no higher temperature orthogonal smetic phases. Ordering is accomplished by the combination of (1) contacting the liquid crystal material in the smectic C phase with an ordering substance and (2) subjecting the liquid crystal material to a slowly varying electric field.

Ferroelectric liquid crystal devices

Liquid crystal devices having excellent speed are produced by utilizing an appropriate liquid crystal mixture. This mixture is prepared by selecting liquid crystal materials having opposite pitch and having specifically chosen spontaneous polarizations.

Liquid crystal devices

The use of a certain class of liquid crystal materials that exhibit a smectic C phase allows the production of a bistable liquid crystal display element. Such bistable display elements promote the use of matrix addressing for liquid crystal based elements in a display.

Smectic liquid crystals

The alignment of liquid crystal materials in cells utilized for devices is significantly enhanced through the use of materials such as polyamides, polyimides, nylons, and polyesters. This expedient for alignment of liquid crystal materials is useful for nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals, but finds particularly advantageous use for aligning smectic liquid crystals.

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Berkeley Heights, NJ, United States of America

John W Goodby