Field effects in nematic liquid crystals obtained with interdigital electrodes

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Abstract
New electro-optic effects in nematic liquid crystals have been found with a gratinglike array of in-plane interdigital electrodes. High-contrast light valving has been demonstrated in a tunable optical-activity mode and in two tunable birefringence modes. All three field-effect modes utilized a positive-dielectric-anisotropy nematic liquid crystal. Proposals are made for applying the interdigital technique to cholesteric, smectic, and mixed liquid-crystal systems. Experimental results indicate that the comb-shaped electrodes are valuable in a variety of display devices.