Electrically switching bistability of a chiral quasi-homeotropic liquid crystal device with low driving voltage

Abstract

We report a new electrically switching bistable chiral quasi-homeotropic liquid crystal device with low driving voltage. This device is operated from the initial twisted-homeotropic state to either +90degrees or -270degrees twisted static state showing dark and bright transmittances, respectively, using different switching processes. The critical applied voltage to achieve the switching bistability of our device is only 4.3 V, which is approximately twice its threshold voltage for Freedericksz transition. In addition, the switching characteristics of this device with different driving waveforms are also investigated in this paper.