Electro-optical response of hybrid twisted nematic liquid crystal displays

A novel operating mode for a liquid crystal display device has been developed. The devices involved both hybrid alignment and twisted director configuration. The operating mode was thus termed a hybrid twisted nematic (HTN) mode. In comparison with the conventional twisted nematic mode, faster response and smaller operation voltage have been obtained by using a proper amount of chiral dopant and a homeotropically aligning surfactant having an appropriate length of alkyl chains. The characteristics of the HTN cells were strongly dependent on the chain length and the applied bias voltage. It was also found that a chiral dopant played an important role in the director configuration associated with hybrid twisted alignment. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.