A liquid crystal display includes a display area and a border area at least partially surrounding the display area, where the display area displays images for viewing and the border area displays display-protection images, which are used to control ion migration in the liquid crystal layer. In a more particular embodiment, the border area displays a series of checkerboard pattern(s), where the checkerboard patterns can alternate between initial and inverted values. The display-protection images protect the liquid crystal display from migrating ions accumulating in particular regions of the pixel array and causing permanent defects in the display area. A liquid crystal display that includes a liquid crystal alignment layer having a plurality of liquid crystal alignment directions is also disclosed. The customized liquid crystal alignment director(s) over the border area promote ion migration away from the display area.

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a first alignment film formed over the first substrate, a second substrate, a second alignment film formed over the second substrate, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first alignment film and the second alignment film, and a projecting portion formed over the second substrate. The first alignment film is a photo alignment film, and a thickness d2 of the second alignment film over the projecting portion and a film thickness d1 of a portion of the first alignment film facing the projecting portion satisfy formula (2),
d2<d1(2).

The liquid crystal panel of the present invention sequentially includes: a first substrate including a first electrode; a first alignment film; a liquid crystal layer containing liquid crystal molecules having a positive anisotropy of dielectric constant; a second alignment film; and a second substrate including a second electrode, the liquid crystal molecules being homogeneously aligned with no voltage applied between the first electrode and the second electrode, a polar anchoring energy 2EA and an azimuthal anchoring energy 2EB of the second alignment film being smaller than a polar anchoring energy 1EA and an azimuthal anchoring energy 1EB of the first alignment film, respectively, the polar anchoring energy 2EA of the second alignment film being not greater than the azimuthal anchoring energy 2EB of the second alignment film.

A substrate provided with an alignment film includes: a substrate including an electrode on a surface thereof; and an alignment film in contact with the electrode. The alignment film contains a first polymer that contains a polysiloxane structure in a side chain and a second polymer that contains a photo-reactive group or a vertically aligning functional group. The alignment film includes a first surface that is placed on a side close to the electrode and contains the first polymer and a second surface that is placed on a side opposite to the first surface and contains the second polymer. The first polymer has a weight that is equal to or greater than a weight of the second polymer in the alignment film.

A tunable terahertz achromatic wave plate including at least three phase retarders and a tuning device is provided. The at least three phase retarders are sequentially arranged along a first direction, and configured to provide an achromatic range in a terahertz band, so as to reduce a chromatic aberration of a terahertz wave through the tunable terahertz achromatic wave plate in the achromatic range. The at least three phase retarders respectively include a liquid crystal cell. The tuning device is configured to tune a liquid crystal orientation angle of the liquid crystal cell, so as to correspondingly change a birefringence of the at least three phase retarders in the terahertz band. The terahertz wave through the tunable terahertz achromatic wave plate has same phase retardation in the achromatic range. The achromatic range in the terahertz band is determined according to the birefringence of the at least three phase retarders.

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device that is less prone to display defects and a decrease in the voltage holding ratio regardless of the presence or absence of an alignment film. The liquid crystal display device includes: a pair of substrates; a liquid crystal layer containing a liquid crystal material between the substrates; and a polymer layer for controlling alignment of liquid crystal molecules on a surface of at least one of the substrates, the substrates being substantially free of an alignment film in outermost surfaces thereof, the polymer layer being formed by polymerization of at least two kinds of radical polymerizable monomers in the liquid crystal layer, at least one of the radical polymerizable monomers being a compound having a structure that creates a ketyl radical as a result of hydrogen abstraction induced by light radiation.

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device and a method of producing the same in which the occurrence of a bright dot at an edge portion of a display region is suppressed during use in a wide temperature range. The liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes: a liquid crystal layer disposed between a first substrate and a second substrate; an alignment film disposed adjacent to the liquid crystal layer of at least one of the first substrate or the second substrate; and a sealing material to achieve adhesion between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the liquid crystal layer contains a liquid crystal material, the liquid crystal material contains an alkoxy group-containing liquid crystal compound and exhibits a liquid crystal phase at 10 C. or higher and 80 C. or lower, the sealing material is a cured product of an epoxy resin-containing sealant, and the alignment film includes at least one of a first alignment film including a polymer layer formed using a first alignment agent containing a polyamic acid and a polysiloxane, or a second alignment film including a polymer layer formed using a second alignment agent containing a polyamic acid in which a silane coupling agent is adsorbed onto a surface of the polymer layer.

Provided are a liquid crystal alignment film capable of being given anisotropy through photoalignment and stable to light, and a liquid crystal display device capable of keeping a high voltage holding ratio without degradation of display quality even when exposed to strong light for a long period of time. To provide these, used is a liquid crystal aligning agent for photoalignment which contains a polymer having a structural unit containing a photoreactive structure and in which the structural unit containing a photoreactive structure undergoes chemical reaction by heating.

A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a first alignment film formed over the first substrate, a second substrate, a second alignment film formed over the second substrate, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the first alignment film and the second alignment film, and a projecting portion formed over the second substrate. The first alignment film is a photo alignment film, and a thickness d2 of the second alignment film over the projecting portion and a film thickness d1 of a portion of the first alignment film facing the projecting portion satisfy formula (2),

d2<d1(2).

Ink-jet printable compositions including nanoparticles capped with a protective layer of hydrocarbon chains and a single solvent exhibiting a single evaporation rate and having a specifically defined viscosity and surface tension that result in uniform and printable alignment layers for liquid crystal materials. Patterned liquid crystal-containing cells are also disclosed including one or more layers including the same or different nanoparticles capped with a protective layer of hydrocarbon chains printed on a surface of a substrate or even another nanoparticle-containing layer. Methods for producing the cells are also disclosed, including the step of printing a pattern on one or more portions of a cell surface utilizing a composition comprising the capped nanoparticles. Devices including the cells are also disclosed.