A Practical Method of Preparing Thin Homogeneous Ferroelectric Smectic Cells for Electro-Optical Microsecond Switches: Alignment Control of Liquid Crystal Molecules by Utilizing Spacer Edges

A new method has been described for preparing a homogeneous monodomain cell with the non-treated clean surfaces. The method relies on the alignment control of liquid crystal molecules at the spacer edges and is particularly simple and convenient. The growing process and the resultant homogeneous monodomain have been shown for the parallel molecular alignment at the edge of a polyethylene terephthalate film cut along the main drawing direction. The possibility of the perpendicular alignment at the spacer edges has also been pointed out by observing that the molecules align perpendicularly at the interface to air.