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Alignment Properties of Liquid Crystals

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Handbook of Visual Display Technology

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Abstract

This chapter begins by outlining the main types of liquid crystal surface alignment and common device geometries and then goes on to describe how both uniform and patterned surface alignment can be achieved via conventional techniques such as rubbing and photo-alignment. Finally, the chapter concludes with information on bistable alignment, bulk alignment techniques (such as field alignment and polymer networks), and how to align non-nematic phases such as cholesterics and smectics.

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Abbreviations

ECB:

Electrically controlled birefringence

HAN:

Hybrid-aligned nematic

IPS:

In-plane switching

LCD:

Liquid crystal display

OCB:

Optically compensated bend

TFTs:

Thin-film transistors

TN:

Twisted nematic

ULH:

Uniform lying helix

VAN:

Vertically aligned nematic

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sharp Laboratories of Europe Limited, Edmund Halley Road, Oxford Science Park, OX4 4GB, Oxford, UK

    Lesley Parry-Jones

Authors
  1. Lesley Parry-Jones
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Correspondence to Lesley Parry-Jones .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Industrial Technology Research Institute Display Technology Center, Hsin Chu, Taiwan

    Janglin Chen

  2. Nottingham Trent University School of Computing & Informatics, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Wayne Cranton

  3. Veritas et Visus, Temple, TX, USA

    Mark Fihn

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Parry-Jones, L. (2014). Alignment Properties of Liquid Crystals. In: Chen, J., Cranton, W., Fihn, M. (eds) Handbook of Visual Display Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35947-7_86-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35947-7_86-2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35947-7

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