High birefringence and low viscosity negative dielectric anisotropy liquid crystals

We have synthesised and evaluated the physical properties of some high birefringence, lateral difluoro‐terphenyl compounds and mixtures. These mixtures exhibit a high birefringence (Δn∼0.24) in the visible spectral range and a relatively low viscosity. When doped in commercial mixtures, the difluoro‐terphenyl compounds enhance the mixture's birefringence while causing almost no penalty to the rotational viscosity. These mixtures are particularly attractive for achieving fast response times in thin‐cell liquid crystal displays.