Chiral smectic liquid crystal device

摘要

A chiral smectic liquid crystal device is constituted by a chiral smectic liquid crystal; a pair of substrates each provided with an electrode for applying a voltage to the liquid crystal and an alignment control layer formed by oblique vapor deposition, the pair of substrates being oppositely disposed to sandwich the liquid crystal so as to form a plurality of pixels each provided with an active element connected to an associated electrode on at least one of the substrates; and a polarizer provided to at least one of the substrates. The liquid crystal has a phase transition series on temperature decrease of isotropic liquid phase (Iso), cholesteric phase (Ch) and chiral smectic C phase (Smc*) or of Iso and SmC*. Further, the alignment control layer formed by oblique vapor deposition comprises a plurality of columns of deposited material forming an angle of at most 70 degrees with respect to an associated substrate so that liquid crystal molecules in the smectic phase are aligned substantially perpendicular to an extension direction of the columns of deposited material, thus improving a contrast of the resultant chiral smectic liquid crystal device.