Patent ID: 8035587

Claim:
A method for driving a liquid crystal device to record an image on the liquid crystal device, the liquid crystal device including a pair of electrodes, a liquid crystal layer containing a cholesteric liquid crystal, and a photoconductive layer, the liquid crystal layer and the photoconductive layer being sandwiched between the pair of electrodes, the method comprising: performing at least one of: applying a voltage V 1 ′ between the pair of electrodes; and applying a voltage V 1 ″ between the pair of electrodes while irradiating the liquid crystal device with address light P 1 , so as to make the liquid crystal layer to be in a homeotropic phase; performing at least one of: applying a voltage higher than the voltage V 1 ′ between the pair of electrodes while irradiating selectively the liquid crystal device with address light P 2 so that a voltage V 2 L higher than the voltage V 1 is applied to a portion of the liquid crystal layer not irradiated with the address light P 2 and a voltage V 2 H higher than the voltage V 2 L is applied to a portion of the liquid crystal layer irradiated with the address light P 2 ; and irradiating selectively each portion of the liquid crystal layer with one of address light P 2 H and P 2 L so that the voltage V 2 L is applied to a portion of the liquid crystal layer irradiated with the address light P 2 L and the voltage V 2 H is applied to a portion of the liquid crystal layer irradiated with the address light P 2 H; and performing at least one of: applying a voltage V 3 ′ between the pair of electrodes under a condition of such a magnification and application time of the voltage V 3 ′ that a phase of a portion to which the voltage V 2 H has been applied changes to a planar phase and a phase of a portion to which the voltage V 2 L has been applied changes to a focal conic phase; and applying a voltage V 3 ″ between the pair of electrodes while irradiating the liquid crystal layer with address light P 3 under a condition of such a magnification and application time of the voltage V 3 ′ and a light intensity of the address light P 3 that the phase of the portion to which the voltage V 2 H has been applied changes to a planar phase and the phase of the portion to which the voltage V 2 L has been applied changes to a focal conic phase, so as to record the image.