Patent ID: 8368848

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an electro-optic cell comprising two plates of optically transparent material and at least one thickness of a composite gel based on a smectic liquid crystal and a polymer provided between said plates, said gel being in a smectic phase at ambient temperature, said method comprising the following steps: injecting a mixture of a ferroelectric and/or anti-ferroelectric smectic liquid and of a monomer between said plates, wherein the monomer content is between 5 and 25% by weight; heating the mixture to above the smectic phase/nematic phase transition temperature thereof so that the mixture is in the nematic phase; irradiating the mixture in the nematic phase, by ultraviolet radiation, so as to polymerize the monomer and thus obtain said gel, and during said irradiation step, an electric or magnetic field is applied to the mixture in the nematic phase.