A liquid crystal display device using disclination lines to accelerate a change of state

A liquid crystal display (LCD) device comprises a liquid crystal (LC) layer 1 disposed between two substrates 2. The device includes means for generating a pre-determined pattern of one or more disclination lines 10 in a portion of the LC layer. The generating means may include applying an electric field distribution to the LC layer. Each disclination line (domain wall) separates two different, stable asymmetric H-states (splay state). When a desired LC state, such as a V- (bend) or T-state (twisted), is generated in a region 9 of the LC layer, a disclination line 11 bounding region 9 can propagate along the disclination line(s) 10. This increases the speed with wich the region 9 of the desired LC state grows in area. A nucleation region 8 may be provided. A method of making a LCD substrate is described comprising providing a substrate having a portion of increased thickness forming a step. The edge of the step is made non linear (fig. 10). An alignment layer is disposed on the upper surface of the substrate and rubbed along a rubbing direction. The non-linear edge of the step is the leading edge during rubbing. The non-linear edge modifies the rubbing strength.