An experimental investigation of hysteretic switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals has been carried out. It is shown that in switching from the antiferroelectric state to the ferroelectric state there exists both a heterogeneous process involving the growth of finger-like domains and a homogeneous process in which the whole cell uniformly switches. At high field slew rates the homogeneous process dominates. However, ferroelectric to antiferroelectric switching involves only a heterogeneous process. A simple analytic model is then used to describe the experimental results and thus understand the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous switching.
Homogeneous and heterogeneous switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals
Beccherelli R;
2000
Abstract
An experimental investigation of hysteretic switching in antiferroelectric liquid crystals has been carried out. It is shown that in switching from the antiferroelectric state to the ferroelectric state there exists both a heterogeneous process involving the growth of finger-like domains and a homogeneous process in which the whole cell uniformly switches. At high field slew rates the homogeneous process dominates. However, ferroelectric to antiferroelectric switching involves only a heterogeneous process. A simple analytic model is then used to describe the experimental results and thus understand the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous switching.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.