Organic materials for vertical alignment can be used to align liquid crystals horizontally by irradiating an ion beam on the surface under appropriate conditions. Using this technique, we can achieve easily a multidomain alignment for a hybrid-aligned nematic (HAN) cell. We found that a two-domain HAN cell obtained by ion beam exposure shows excellent electro-optical characteristics. The use of the same alignment material in a HAN cell could reduce the cost of production and generation of DC offset voltage.

We propose a novel driving method which is very effective for the display of moving pictures on a π cell. In the new driving method, we proposed each scan pulse is divided into two parts for fast switching unlike the conventional active matrix driving method that uses one scan pulse for each frame. By overdriving or underdriving the π cell using an appropriate data voltage during the first scan time and applying a desired data voltage to the cell during the second scan time, we can achieve fast switching between all gray levels.

Polyimide 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.

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