LIQUID CRYSTAL ELEMENT AND LIQUID CRYSTAL DEVICE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a liquid crystal element capable of preventing a local abnormality in switching, a change in the switching state with time and sticking and excellent in reliability and durability by sandwiching a specific chiral smectic liquid crystal composition capable of manifesting plural stable states between a pair of substrates. SOLUTION: This liquid crystal element comprises a chiral smectic liquid crystal composition capable of manifesting two or more stable states sandwiched between a pair of substrates. The chiral smectic liquid crystal composition has no cholesteric phase and the relationship between the layer spacing (dA) at the first transition point where the layer spacing starts reducing near the temperature for changing the smectic A phase into the chiral smectic C phase and the minimum value (dmin ) of the layer spacing at the second transition point where the layer spacing is reduced with decreasing temperature from the first transition point and then rechanged to an increase satisfies the formula. A compound capable of interacting with an anion such as a cationic surfactant is contained in the chiral smectic liquid crystal composition.