Driving voltage properties sensitive to microscale liquid crystal orientation pattern in twisted nematic liquid crystal cells

We investigated the micropattern-sensitive driving voltage properties of twisted nematic liquid crystal (LC) cells and found that the threshold voltage for inducing the Fréedericksz transition strongly depends on the micropatterned LC molecular orientation state. We discuss the effects of various cell parameters such as the period of the micropattern Λ, the LC layer thickness d, and the twist angle Φ on the threshold voltage. By a computer simulation of the LC molecular orientation, we found that the threshold voltage Vth varies in response to the deformation factor Δ (= d2/Λ2 + Φ2/π2) of the spatially distributed LC molecular orientation. We confirm that is proportional to 1 − Δ from both theoretical and experimental standpoints.