Flexible liquid crystal displays using liquid crystal-polymer composite film and colorless polyimide substrate

Application of liquid crystal (LC) materials to a flexible device is challenging because the bending of LC displays easily causes change in thickness of the LC layer and orientation of LCs, resulting in deterioration in a displayed image quality. In this work, we demonstrate a prototype device combining a flexible polymer substrate and an optically isotropic LC-polymer composite in which the device consists of interdigitated in-plane switching electrodes deposited on a flexible colorless polyimide substrate and the composite consisting of nano-sized LC droplets in a polymer matrix. The device can keep good electro-optic characteristics even when it is in a bending state because the LC orientation is not disturbed in both voltage-off and-on states. The proposed device shows a high potential to be applicable for future flexible LC devices.