Liquid crystal media comprising polymerisable compounds

A liquid crystal (LC) medium comprising

• a polymerisable component A) comprising one or more polymerisable compounds of formula I,
• a liquid-crystalline LC component B) comprising one or more mesogenic or liquid-crystalline compounds, and
• one or more self-alignment additives for vertical alignment of formula II
• wherein the formula I is defined as:
• P-Sp-A1-(Z1-A2)z-R I
• wherein the individual radicals, independently of each other and on each occurrence identically or differently, have the following meanings
• P a polymerisable group,
• Sp a spacer group or a single bond,
• A1, A2 benzene or naphthalene, which are optionally substituted by one or more groups L, L11 or P-Sp-,
• provided that at least one group A1 or A2 is substituted by at least one substituent L11,
• L11 —CH2—O—CH3, —CH2—O—C2H5 or —CH2—O—C3H7
• Z1 —O—, —S—, —CO—, —CO—O—, —O—CO—, —O—CO—O—, —OCH2—, —CH2O—, —SCH2—, —CH2S—, —CF2O—, —OCF2—, —CF2S—, —SCF2—, —(CH2)n1—, —CF2CH2—, —CH2CF2—, —(CF2)n1—, —CH═CH—, —CF═CF—, —CH═CF—, —CF═CH—, —C≡C—, —CH═CH—CO—O—, —O—CO—CH═CH—, —CH2—CH2—CO—O—, —O—CO—CH2—CH2—, —CR0R00—, or a single bond,
• R0, R00 H or alkyl having 1 to 12 C atoms,
• R H, L, L11 or P-Sp-,
• L F, Cl, —CN, P-Sp- or straight chain, branched or cyclic alkyl having 1 to 25 C atoms, wherein one or more non-adjacent CH2-groups are optionally replaced by —O—, —S—, —CO—, —CO—O—, —O—CO—, —O—CO—O— in such a manner that O- and/or S-atoms are not directly connected with each other, and wherein one or more H atoms are each optionally replaced by P-Sp-, F or Cl,
• z 0, 1, 2 or 3, and
• n1 1, 2, 3 or 4;
• wherein the formula II is defined as:
• MES-Ra II
• in which
• MES is a calamitic mesogenic group comprising two or more rings, which are connected directly or indirectly to each other or which are condensed to each other, which rings are optionally substituted and which mesogenic group is optionally substituted additionally by one or more polymerizable groups, which are connected to MES directly or via a spacer, and
• Ra is a polar anchor group residing in a terminal position of the calamitic mesogenic group MES, the anchor group comprises at least one carbon atom and at least one group selected from —OH, —SH, —COOH, —CHO or primary or secondary amine function and the anchor group optionally comprises one or two polymerizable groups P.