Ferroelectric liquid crystal electro-optical device having high water repellent alignment layer

Abstract

A ferroelectric liquid crystal electro-optical device utilizes a liquid crystal layer composed of ferroelectric liquid crystal molecules. A first alignment layer is disposed in contact with the liquid crystal layer and has a uniaxial alignment characteristic effective to align the molecular axes of liquid crystal molecules immediately adjacent to the first alignment layer in a predetermined direction parallel to the liquid crystal layer. A second adjacent layer is opposed to the first alignment layer in contact with the liquid crystal layer. The second alignment layer has a random homogeneous alignment characteristic and a water repellency characteristic defined in terms of a water contact angle of more than 70.degree. jointly effective to align the molecular axes of liquid crystal molecules immediately adjacent to the second alignment layer in either of two orientation directions oppositely inclined relative to the predetermined direction in parallel to the liquid crystal layer. An electric field is applied to the liquid crystal molecules to switch the molecules between the two orientation directions to drive the electro-optical device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.