Effect of two-dimensional confinement on switching of vertically aligned liquid crystals by an in-plane electric field.

We investigated the two-dimensional (2-D) confinement effect of liquid crystals (LCs) on the switching of vertically aligned LCs by an in-plane electric field. When an in-plane field is applied to a vertical alignment (VA) cell, virtual walls are built at the center of the interdigitated electrodes and at the middle of the gaps between them. The LC molecules are confined not only by the two substrates but also by the virtual walls so that the turn-off time of a VA cell driven by an in-plane field is dependent on the pitch of the interdigitated electrodes as well as the cell gap. Therefore, the turn-off time of a VA cell driven by an in-plane field can be reduced simply by decreasing the pitch of the interdigitated electrodes as a result of the enhanced anchoring provided by the virtual walls. The experimental results showed good agreement with a simple model based on the 2-D confinement effect of LCs.