The effect of thermal treatment of the alignment layer on the electro-optical response of SSFLCs

Annealing the polyimide alignment layer affected the IR spectra of the alignment layer and correspondingly the electro-optic effect of surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal displays. It was found that with proper annealing a smectic C* liquid crystal with a spontaneous polarization as high as 30 nC/cm² can show good stability towards disturbing pulses. The optimum annealing conditions consisted of a rather narrow temperature band. A model where amorphous regions in an otherwise crystalline polymer act as islands of instability is proposed.