Chapter 5. Liquid crystal cell alignment （第五章。）.pdf

Chapter 5. Liquid crystal cell alignment The static LC cell alignment is determined by the boundary conditions (on the 2 glass surfaces) and the elastic deformation energy of the LC molecules. 5.1 LC director LC optics is determined by it director. The LC director is the direction of the rod shaped LC molecule. z Director θ y φ x The director angles are θ and φ. They are usually expressed as functions of z, the distance inside the LC cell. Azimuthal angle: θ = θ(z) Polar angle: φ = φ(z) (Note: 90o - θ is called the tilt angle α.) 1 This is called the one-dimensional case (1D). The variation of θ and φ is only along the cell direction z. There is no x,y dependence. This is good enough for all TN, STN modeling. For active matrix displays, and for small pixel sizes, it is necessary to consider θ(x, y, z) and φ(x, y, z). They are called 3D cases, and are obviously much more complicated. Commercial softwares are available for both 1D and 3D simulations of LCD. 1D software: DIMOS from Autronics. LCDSoft from HKUST. Shintec 3D software: LIQUID from TMS. 3DIMOS from Autronics. Shintec Once θ(z) and φ(z) is known, the optical properties such as transmission etc of the LCD, can be calculated. So it is necessary to understand how θ(z) and φ(z) change as a function of applied voltage. We shall try to understand the director distribution, i.e. θ(z) and φ(z), under 2 situations: 1. No voltage. The director distribution is determined by boundary conditions. 2. Applied voltage. The director distribution will deform, and the optical properties will change. With no voltage, the alignment of