Inventors:
Jonathan Paul Hannington - Midland MI, US
Terry Victor Clapp - Bishop's Stortford, GB
Fumito Nishida - Midland MI, US
Russell Keith King - Midland MI, US
Omar Farooq - Saginaw MI, US
Martin Grasmann - Midland MI, US
William Alden Crossland - Harlow, GB
Harry James Coles - Sutton Ely, GB
Anthony Bernard Davey - Cambridge, GB
Huan Xu - Cambridge, GB
Oliver Hadeler - Cambridge, GB
Mykhaylo Pivnenko - Cambridge, GB
Assignee:
Dow Corning Corporation - Midland MI
Cambridge Enterprise Ltd. - Cambridge
International Classification:
G02F 1/136
Abstract:
A liquid crystal formulation is described. The liquid crystal formulation comprises a first oligosiloxane-modified nano-phase segregating liquid crystalline material; and at least one additional material selected from a second oligosiloxane-modified nano-phase segregating liquid crystalline material, non-liquid crystalline oligosiloxane-modified materials, organic liquid crystalline materials, or organic non-liquid crystalline materials, wherein the liquid crystal formulation is nano-phase segregated in the SmC* phase, has an I→SmC* phase transition, with a SmC* temperature range from about 15 C. to about 35 C. , has a tilt angle of about 22. 56 or about 456, and has a spontaneous polarization of less than about 50 nC/cm2, and a rotational viscosity of less than about 600 cP. Devices containing liquid crystal formulations are also described. The device has a stable bookshelf geometry, bistable switching, and isothermal electric field alignment, a response time of less than 500 μs when switched between two stable states, and an electric drive field of less than about 30 V/μm.