Orthoconic antiferroelectric liquid crystals for non-display applications

Antiferroelectric liquid crystals are attractive for microdisplay applications, because of their fast switching and wide viewing angle; however the pretransitional effect reduces the contrast of the display. As a promising alternative orthoconic antiferroelectric liquid crystals (OAFLC) with a cone angle of 90º provide a good dark state between crossed polarized independently of the cell rotation. These materials are properly surface stabilized in 1.5μm thick cell required for π retardation, which limits their use in display applications. In this work, new OAFLC mixtures have been surface stabilized in thick cells. This achievement may open a new area of OAFLC applications in photonic devices.