Abstract
With a view to their application to TFT-LCD, we studied smectic liquid crystal materials showing V-shaped switching. It is known that the alignment and switching properties of V-shaped switching liquid crystal materials are highly dependent on the kind of alignment layers. Therefore, we investigated many polyimide materials, which are similar in certain respects, for application as alignment layer of V-shaped switching liquid crystal materials. As a result, polyimide materials that have low polarity and low pretilt angle were found to be suitable for alignment layer of V-shaped switching liquid crystal materials. The alignment of V-shaped switehing liquid crystal materials becomes unstable due to the strong polar interaction between dipole moments of liquid crystal molecules and the polarity of alignment layers.
