Ferroelectric liquid crystalline materials: Hosts, dopants and gels for display applications

Over the last ten years, the study and exploitation of chirality in liquid crystal systems has been one of the fastest, and largest, growth areas in t he research of self-organising fluids, leading to technological application s in the area of display devices. In particular ferroelectric liquid crysta ls have been shown to be capable of being used as fast-switching light-valv es. Such devices could form the basis of the next generation of flat panel liquid crystal displays, projection devices, and 3D imaging systems.