Enhanced contrast ratio of homogeneously aligned liquid crystal displays by controlling the surface-anchoring strength

The dark state of homogeneously aligned liquid crystal displays (LCDs) associated with the in-plane switching of a LC director depends on their molecular ordering. We propose a new approach to reduce the light leakage in the dark state of homogeneously aligned LCDs. A very small amount of reactive mesogen (RM) is mixed with the LC material and polymerized at room temperature and also at a low temperature (-20 °C) to strengthen the surface-anchoring energy. The contrast ratio of the low-temperature cured cell is improved by about 50% over that of the pure LC cell and the room temperature cured RM-mixed LC cell due to an enhanced order parameter.