Bistable switching of twist direction in a twisted-nematic liquid crystal cell

摘要

We propose a bistable liquid crystal mode based on switching of the twist direction in a conventional π/2-twisted nematic cell. Switching between the -π/2 and +π/2 twist states can be performed by applying vertical and/or in-plane electric fields. The proposed bistable mode has an infinite memory time because the two stable twist states have the same elastic free energy.