A highly bistable fast-shear aligned polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal device

We present a new shear aligned polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal material which in this configuration possesses the same electro-optical characteristics as conventional surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals. The sample thickness is 20mum as opposed to the 1-2mum used in the normal surface stabilized geometry. The new material shows switching on the 100mus timescale and very high bistability (G>0.8) minutes after removal of the field. The temperature independent apparent tilt angle is 25 at room temperature, almost equal to the ideal value of 22.5 for many display applications. The material is prepared from a solution of a novel low molar mass organosiloxane ferroelectric liquid crystal in a UV-curable polymer. We study the physical properties of the composite material and give a description of the fabrication technique and its optimization. The material and fabrication technique could be readily used for industrial production of devices including flexible display panels.