Optical multi-stability of bimesogenic cholesteric liquid crystal

In this paper, we present a multi-stable property in a bimesogenic cholesteric liquid crystal material with a proper chiral additive and check its potential as an energy saving transmissive type liquid crystal display (LCD) through its electro-optic characteristics. Experimental results show that the multi-stable characteristics in the fabricated cholesteric LC cell are very stable. Such multi-stable properties depend on the driving frequency, voltage, and field direction. The contrast ratio in the fabricated transmissive type cholesteric LC cell was 15:1, which is a result produced by voltage and frequency control.