The transient behavior of the bistable nematic liquid crystal cells

Abstract

The transient behaviors switched from homogeneous state in the bistable nematic liquid crystal (BiNem) cell have been studied by simulation. We find two different dynamic relaxation processes of the directors when we apply pulses of the same voltage with 1 and 2 ms durations to the cell. The directors which respond to the 2 ms pulse go directly to the so called twisted state and the relaxation time is short. Those which respond to the 1 ms pulse go through an over twisted process before toward the twisted state and the relaxation time is longer. When the pulse duration is too short, the cell is unable to be switched to the twisted state. The explanation is given via the dynamic behavior of the director near the weak anchoring boundary of the cell.