Liquid crystal device and display apparatus

Claim 1

A liquid crystal device, comprising: a pair of substrates and a chiral smectic liquid crystal disposed between the substrates, at least one of said pair of substrates having thereon an alignment film comprising a polyimide having only side chains and substituents selected from the group consisting of F, CH 3 and CF 3 formed by dehydro-cyclization of a polyamide acid which is a reaction product of (i) a tetracarboxylic acid component selected from naphthalenetetracarboxylic acid and derivatives thereof with (ii) a diamine component selected from the group consisting of Formulae (1)-(4): ##STR24## wherein Z 1 denotes a single bond, --CH 2 --, --S--, --CO--, --C(CH 3 ) 2 -- or --C(CF 3 ) 2 --; Z 2 --Z 6 independently denote a single bond, --O--, --CH 2 --, --S--, --CO--, --C(CH 3 ) 2 --or --C(CF 3 ) 2--; and X 1 -X 10 independently denote H, F, CH 3 or CF 3 so as to form an alignment structure with a region of a C1 alignment state in which a plurality of smectic layers each comprising plural liquid crystal molecules are aligned parallel to each other, said plural liquid crystal molecules being aligned to extend such that their forward ends define acute pre-tilt angles with respect to said pair of substrates and the extension directions of said plural liquid crystal molecules adjacent to said pair of substrates intersect each other, and wherein said plurality of smectic layers are bent in a direction opposite to the forward direction of the molecules.