Abstract
Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) are one of the promising materials for next-generation liquid crystal displays (LCDs) because of fast response, microsizing of pixel and so on. Since the molecular alignment structure of FLC is strongly affected by the surface roughness of substrate, it is important to investigate the influence of the microscopically patterned electrodes on the alignment of FLC molecules. In this study, we have researched the influence of the unevenness of the electrodes on the surface of the polyimide alignment film and the alignment structure of FLC, and then tried to obtain a defect-free uniform alignment even in FLCD having microscopically patterned electrodes. As a result, it was obvious that the way of wetting of the polyimide solution is largely different even in the small difference of the surface unevenness in the patterned electrodes. A uniform alignment of FLC molecules was obtained by using the combination of a flat surface of polyimide film and a relatively even surface of the glass substrate with microscopically patterned electrodes.
