Liquid crystal device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display which can be manufactured at a high yield.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a liquid crystal display which can construct white-black images at a high contrast ratio.
When a linearly polarized light ray enters an anisotropic ferroelectric liquid crystal layer having different refractive indices in normal directions perpendicular and parallel to the long axes of the liquid crystal molecules, the direction of polarization rotates in the layer as long as the polarization plane is oblique to the normal directions.
The phase difference D between two components of an incident light in the normal directions is given by D=d.
times.
dn.
times.
2.
pi.
/.
lambda.
where d is the thickness of the liquid crystal layer; dn is the differential index between the two refractive indices; and .
lambda.
is the wavelength.
The effect of the anisotropy of the medium becomes maximum when the phase difference D is .
pi.
(2n-1) wherein n is an integer.
Since the chromatic aberration increases as the D increase, the D has to be .
pi.
.
On the other hand, in case of ferroelectric liquid crystal material having been prepared by mixing several liquid crystals to conform necessary characteristics the thickness has to be as thin as 1.
5 micrometers or less.
The yield of devices having such a thin liquid crystal layer becomes very low because of the increase likelihood of the formation of short current paths between pair of electrodes sandwiching the liquid crystal layer.
A liquid crystal device comprises a pair of transparent substrates insides of which are formed with electrode arrangements, a ferroelectric a liquid crystal layer between the substrates and a pair of polarizing plates arranged orthogonally in the outsides of the substrates.
In accordance with the present invention, the thickness of a liquid crystal layer is chosen to be sufficiently large suitable for manufacture, e.
g.
, from 2 micrometers to 5 micrometers, so that the liquid crystal device can be easily manufactured at an increased yield