Layer and director profiles in ferroelectric liquid crystal displays subjected to mechanical damage

Ferroelectric liquid crystal devices are notoriously susceptible to mechani cal damage. Engineering approaches have reduced flow and shear effects usin g a polymer wall to maintain the cell spacing across the panel(1). This was used to produce a 6" video rate display with 64 grey levels and a resistan ce to mechanical shock which is comparable to commercial STN panels(2). How ever, a fundamental understanding of the mechanical damaged structure and i ts relation to the FLC physical properties is required. In this work X-ray diffraction is used to determine the smectic layer structure arising from m echanical damage.