Reduction of threshold voltage for bistable liquid-crystal switching using a priming voltage

A method is described for reducing the threshold field required to achieve high-speed matrix addressing of a bistable nematic liquid-crystal storage display. A short ac priming voltage pulse applied to the device modifies the binding energy for disclinations attached to sites of orientational discontinuity, thereby changing the threshold field for electrical switching between bistable states. The threshold reduction depends on the ac frequency and width of the writing pulse. The physical mechanism underlying this effect is described. Matrix addressing (3:1) with 2-ms pulses has been demonstrated with select voltage levels as low as 2 V
0
= 70 V and nonselect levels of V
0
= 35 V.