P-85: Hybrid Aligned Nematic Liquid Crystal Cell of Two Domains using Two Identical Alignment Layers Treated by Ion Beam

layers for homeotropic alignment can align liquid crystal horizontally after an ion beam is exposed on their surfaces in proper conditions. By exposing an ion beam on homeotropic alignment layers, we can achieve multi-domain alignment for a hybrid-aligned-nematic (HAN) cell. We found that a two-domain HAN cell achieved by the ion beam exposure shows good electro-optical characteristics. We also point out that use of two same alignment layers in a HAN sample could reduce the cost for product and the generation of a DC offset voltage. 1. Introduction progress in Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) has been achieved rapidly for the last ten years. However, most of currently available LCDs still utilize twisted-nematic (TN) mode. Since TN mode suffers from the slow response speed and the narrow viewing angle, advanced LCD modes have been continuously studied and proposed. LCD modes suitable for large-size LCDs are in-plane-switching (IPS) mode, vertically-aligned (VA) mode, and optically-compensated-birefregence (OCB) mode. However, IPS mode and VA mode have slow response speed unsuitable for moving pictures and the cell gap of these modes is lower than that of a TN LCD. Low cell gap results in low production yield. OCB mode requires a high initial voltage to bring LC directors to the bend state. Bias voltage is also needed to maintain the bend state while switching.