Modelling switching and optics in ferroelectric liquid crystal microdisplays

Switching in surface stabilised ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) cells takes place through the formation and evolution of domains, which can grow up to many tens of microns in size. Domain growth can be described by the A vrami model, but this relies on a statistical distribution of the number of nucleated domains, and hence a large number of domains are required for th is model to succeed. We discuss the limitations of this model, for example in a micro-display pixel, which is between 10-20 microns in size, and there fore only a few domains exist within each pixel. We also investigated the e ffects of light scattering during partial switching. Light scattering throu gh domains is modelled using the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) metho d, and shows good agreement with experimental results.