Polymer stabilized vertical alignment liquid crystal display: Effect of monomer structures and their stabilizing characteristics

A polymer-stabilized vertical alignment (PS-VA) mode using a new type of photoreactive monomer for polymer stabilization of the liquid crystal (LC) director was developed. Conventional reactive mesogens having a higher molecular weight than those of the host LC tend to aggregate and form large-sized polymer grains when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, subsequently deteriorating the quality of the dark state. To address these problems, bis(4-hydroxyphenyl) diacrylates were synthesized with four different linking groups as stabilizing monomers (SMs) which have molecular weights similar to that of the host LC. Their stabilizing characteristics with respect to the molecular size and polarity of SMs were evaluated by examining the electro-optic characteristics of LC cells after UV irradiation. The results showed that the SM containing a small linking group in size between biphenyls with high polarity was favored to achieve excellent polymer stabilization. The SM containing an ether linkage showed excellent electro-optic characteristics with no large-sized polymer grains even in the absence of a photo-initiator. Consequently, we anticipate that SMs, polar and smaller in size, can improve the electro-optic characteristics in PS-VA mode.