There are provided a liquid crystal composition containing one or two or more compounds represented by the general formula (I) and a liquid crystal display device including the liquid crystal composition. A liquid crystal composition containing a compound represented by the general formula (I) has high dielectric constant anisotropy and low viscosity and is of great practical use as a liquid crystal composition for liquid crystal displays. A liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal composition according to the present invention has a high contrast, high-speed responsivity, high light resistance, and a lower occurrence of image sticking and display defects, and is effective for higher-speed response and high-quality reliability.

An electro-polarizable compound has the following general formula:

##STR00001##

Core1 is an aromatic polycyclic conjugated molecule having two-dimensional flat form and that self-assembles to form supramolecular structures. R1 are electron donor groups connected to Core1 and R1 are electron acceptor groups connected to Corel, m is number of acceptor groups R1, m is a number of donor groups R. The numbers m and m are equal to 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, but both m and m are not both equal to 0. R2 is a substituent comprising one or more ionic groups connected to Core1 directly or via a connecting group; a number p of ionic groups R2 is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. The fragment marked NLE has a nonlinear effect of polarization. Core2 is a self-assembling electro-conductive oligomer, a number n of the such oligomers is 0, 2, or 4. R3 is a substituent comprising one or more ionic groups connected to Core2; a number s of the ionic groups R3 is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. R4 is a resistive substituent electrically insulating the supramolecular structures from each other. A number k of substituents R4 is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8.

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal (LC) medium comprising a polymerizable compound, to a process for its preparation, to its use for optical, electro-optical and electronic purposes, in particular in LC displays, especially in an LC display of the polymer sustained alignment (PSA) type, and to an LC display, especially a PSA display, comprising it.

Reactive mesogens (RMs), mixtures and formulations comprising RMs, polymers obtained from such RMs and RM mixtures, and the use of the RMs, RM mixtures and polymers in optical or electrooptical components or devices, like optical films for liquid crystal displays (LCDs).

The invention relates to bimesogenic compounds of formula I

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.11, R.sup.12, MG.sup.11, MG.sup.12, X.sup.11, X.sup.12 and Sp.sup.1 have the meaning given in claim 1, to the use of bimesogenic compounds of formula I in liquid crystal media and particular to flexoelectric liquid crystal devices comprising a liquid crystal medium according to the present invention.

An object is to provide a polymerizable liquid crystal compound, a polymerizable liquid crystal composition containing the compound and liquid crystal polymerization film-kind capable of controlling chromatic dispersion characteristics and having low positive chromatic dispersion characteristics.

An aspect can be exemplified in which the polymerizable liquid crystal compound is represented by formula (1):

##STR00001## in which, in formula (1), G is a group composed of a quinoline skeleton, an isoquinoline skeleton, a quinoxaline skeleton or a quinazoline skeleton, A.sup.1 is 1,4-phenylene or 1,4-cyclohexylene, Z.sup.1 is a connecting group, m is an integer from 0 to 3, and R.sup.1 is a group containing a polymerizable group.

A liquid crystal medium has stability to heat, light and so forth, and significantly high dielectric anisotropy, and develops an optically isotropic liquid crystal phase. Moreover, various kinds of optical devices can be used in a wide temperature range and have a short response time, a large contrast ratio and low driving voltage. A liquid crystal composition contains achiral component T containing at least one compound 1 represented by formula (1) and a chiral agent, and develops the optically isotropic liquid crystal phase. ##STR00001## In formula (1), for examples, R.sup.1 is alkyl, L.sup.1 and L.sup.2 are each independently fluorine or hydrogen, and X.sup.1 is halogen.

Liquid-crystalline (LC) media having positive dielectric anisotropy and liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) containing these media, especially displays addressed by an active matrix and in particular energy efficient LC displays of the TN, PS-TN, STN, TN-TFT, OCB, IPS, PS-IPS, FFS, HB-FFS, XB-FFS, PS-FFS, SA-HB-FFS, SA-XB-FFS, polymer stabilised SA-HB-FFS, polymer stabilised SA-XB-FFS, positive VA or positive PS-VA type. The media have an improved long-term stability against UV radiation and elevated temperatures.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display (LCD) of the polymer stabilized ultra fast (PS-UF) twisted nematic (TN) mode, to an LCD obtained by this method and to an LC medium used therein.