Fabrication of Defect-Free Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Cells with Anti-Parallel Rubbed Alignment Films

We try to fabricate a defect-free ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) cell having anti-parallel rubbed alignment films. The zigzag defect is the boundary defect between two types of chevron domains, and the two chevrons in a conventional anti-parallel FLC cell have same energy. In order to distinguish these two chevrons, we adopt a combination of different alignment films which were rubbed with different rubbing strength. As a result, it is confirmed that the occurrence of zigzag defects can be more strongly suppressed as the difference of rubbing strength increases.