Abstract
Homogeneously aligned nematic liquid crystal displays (LCDs) driven by in-plane or fringe field were known to exhibit wide viewing angle and appeared to be black in the off state. However, the existence of spacers inside the cell causes the deformation of the liquid crystal molecules. Such a deformation of the liquid crystal causes light-leakage in the dark state, which lowers contrast ratio of the display. We found that the light-leakage due to deformation of the LC director near the spacer mainly depends on the dielectric anisotropy and the ratio of elastic constants of the LC. In this paper, the mechanism on deformation of the LC near spacer is investigated by optical polarizing microscopy.
