Chiral liquid crystal cell

A chiral smectic liquid crystal cell, comprising:

• a liquid crystal material in the chiral smectic phase captured between the inner surfaces of first and second spaced-apart, opposed electrode structures, the liquid crystal material being of a type which exhibits in consecutive order chiral nematic, smectic A, and chiral smectic phases at successively lower temperatures and the inner surface of each electrode structure including a director alignment layer which has been conditioned so that in the chiral nematic phase the directors of the liquid crystal material in contact therewith form tilt bias angles relative to the director alignment layer, the tilt bias angles formed by directors in contact with the director alignment layer of the first electrode structure being defined in a rotational sense opposite that of the tilt bias angles formed by directors in contact with the director alignment layer of the second electrode structure,
• whereby the liquid crystal material in the chiral smectic phase has molecules arranged in smectic layers of similar shape and intersecting the conditioned layers of the electrode structures at angles whose values correspond to those of the tilt bias angles.

A substantially defect-free chiral smectic liquid crystal cell, comprising:

• first and second generally parallel electrode structures ;having opposed inner surfaces spaced apart by a predetermined distance;
• and
• a liquid crystal material in the chiral smectic phase having molecules captures between the inner surfaces of the electrode structures, the molecules being arranged substantially uniformly in multiple nonplanar smectic layers of similar shape, each of the smectic layers having side boundaries intersecting different ones of the inner surfaces of the electrode structures.

A substantially defect-free chiral smectic liquid crystal cell, comprising:

• first and second generally parallel electrode structures having opposed inner surfaces spaced apart by a predetermined distance;
• and
• a liquid crystal material in the chiral smectic phase having molecules captured between the inner surfaces of the electrode structures, the molecules being arranged substantially uniformly in multiple smectic layers of similar shape, each of the smectic layers having side boundaries intersecting the inner surfaces of the electrode structures at angles, the angle formed at the intersection on the inner surface of the first electrode structure being of opposite rotational sense to that of the angle formed at the intersection on the inner surface of the second electrode structure.