ABSTRACT
In 1974 R. B. Meyer predicted ferroelectricity in chiral, smectic C(Sc*) liquid crystals by pure symmetry considerations, and his French co-workers gave first experimental evidence of this phenomenon [1]. Since then the interest in this field has grown steadily, and research activity emphasized the understanding of the underlying basic physical phenomena and synthesis of new low-molar-mass compounds exhibiting a broad ferroelectric phase. It was finally the work by Clark and Lagerwall in 1980 on a fast electrooptic effect in a surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) structure [2] which opened up the promising possibility of technical applications of Sc * ferroelectric liquid crystals (Sc* FLCs) in high-information display devices. Through this work both basic and applied research were stimulated and accelerated tremendously as the SSFLC structure showed much faster switching times and bistability behavior in comparison with commonly used nematic liquid crystal displays.
