Patent ID: 6753047
Filing Date: 2004-06-22
Classification: C09K,G02F

Abstract:
A liquid crystal cell comprising:a sealed compartment; a liquid mixture in the compartment, the liquid mixture comprising a liquid crystal and a dichroic dye; a pair of electrodes having surface portions of the electrodes contacting the liquid mixture wherein the surface portions of the electrodes contacting the liquid mixture are both conducting and aligning surfaces comprising a tin oxide coating having a dopant material selected from the group consisting of fluorine, antimony, and mixtures thereof, wherein alignment of the liquid crystals by the surface portions of the electrodes contacting the liquid mixture is observed by viewing the liquid mixture in an unbleached state through a linear polarizer with the position of the dichroic dye showing homogeneous alignment and direction of the liquid crystals, and wherein at least one of the electrodes includes a gradient, mixed metal oxide of silicon oxide and tin oxide between the tin oxide coating and the substrate having a wt % of the silicon oxide that increases as the distance from the substrate decreases and a wt % of the tin oxide that decreases as the distance from the tin oxide coating increases.