Liquid crystal display modes in a nontilted bent-core biaxial smectic liquid crystal

Liquid crystal display (LCD) modes associated with the rotation of the secondary director in nontilted, biaxial smectic phase of an achiral bent-core compound are demonstrated. For LCDs, we find that at least four display modes are possible using SmAP A phase of the studied material, in which the minor directors in adjacent layers are aligned antiferroelectrically. The advantages of these modes include low driving field ( 1 - 2 V / μ m ) , high contrast ratio 1000:1, relatively fast switching time of 0.5 ms and continuous gray scale. The molecular short axis or the polar axis in a negative dielectric, biaxial material is oriented by the in-plane electric field by a combination dielectric biaxiality and polarity at low electric fields and polarity at higher fields.