Ferroelectric liquid crystal display device having monostabilized state as an initial state and continuous gray-scale

A liquid crystal display device, comprising:

• a pair of substrates each provided with an aligning layer having a processing direction for uniaxial orientation, the processing directions being substantially anti-parallel to each other, a distance between said pair of substrates being in a range of 1.2 to 3 .mu.m;
• a liquid crystal mixture having a helical pitch of more than 2 .mu.m in the chiral smectic C phase at ambient temperature, said liquid crystal mixture including at least one non-chiral component having at least one heterocyclic ring, said liquid crystal mixture being charged into a space between said pair of substrates in isotropic or chiral nematic phase and then cooled slowly to ambient temperature so that a projection component on said pair of substrates of an axial direction of a cone delineated by liquid crystal molecules of said liquid crystal mixture and a projection component on said pair of substrates of an axial direction of the liquid crystal molecules are in a same direction as the processing directions for orientation of said pair of substrates and thereby defining a state that is monostabilized as an initial state, a tilt angle of said liquid crystal molecules being continuously variable to one of a positive and a negative sense from a direction of monostable state in accordance with the strength and polarity of an applied electric field.