LIQUID CRYSTAL DEVICE HAVING ASYMMETRICAL OPPOSED CONTIGUOUS SURFACES BEING DRIVEN BY A UNIPOLAR DRIVING SOURCE

摘要

A liquid crystal device including a unipolar driving source; a pair of substrates, at least one of which is transparent; a chiral smectic liquid crystal layer interposed between the substrates; and an electrode arrangement provided in order to apply an electric field normal to the liquid crystal layer, wherein the opposed inner surfaces of the substrates contiguous to the chiral smectic liquid crystal layer are formed of different materials having different surface energies such that upon application of the unipolar voltage to the chiral smectic liquid crystal, the chiral smectic liquid crystal molecules will be placed in a first state and upon removal of the unipolar voltage, the liquid crystal molecules will be returned to a second state.