This review article comprises three contents: 1) a general introduction of liquid crystals (LCs) and their chronological developments until their current status, 2) the descriptions of the achievements of defect-free and optically high-quality LC displays (LCDs), and 3) the description of the new and alternative methods for improving existing LCD technologies in terms of high-speed response, viewing angles, and power consumption through nanoparticle doping and optical compensation on a laboratory level. When these technologies are successfully developed, they will be used in the industry, where the fabrication process will be performed in a large-clean room using automated robotics.
Liquid Crystals , Data Display
The photoinduced alignment of a liquid crystal (LC) on films of azo dyes was studied for the liquid crystal display applications. In order to improve the alignment stability of the photoaligned dye (SD-1), the azo-dye derivative with polymerizable terminal groups was synthesized (SDA-1). The films of SDA-1 exhibit good photoalignment properties and ultraviolet stability after thermal polymerization. We investigated the anchoring coefficient for polar and azimuthal energy for both azo-dyes SD-1 and SDA-1 using a differential method developed by us. The polar and azimuthal anchoring strengths of azo-dye aligning materials are comparable with those of usual polyimide aligning materials. The electro-optic response of a 90 degrees twisted LC cell remains almost the same after heating up to 200 degrees C, i.e., the anchoring energy remains considerably high.
