  Antiferroelectric liquid crystals can be considered as a promising
alternative to nematic mixtures in the area of microdisplays. Switching
behaviour of the molecules has been modelled as two adjacent smectic layers.
However, some studies made so far reveal that electrooptical response can be
seriously affected by ion content of the test cells, specially in the area of
asymmetric cells. Regarding such influence, both molecules and ions have been
studied in the present work under the influence of an external electric field.
The mechanisms governing ionic behaviour considered so far in the simulations
have been diffusion, which was dealt through the Nerst-Planck equation, and
electrostatic interaction, which mixes ionic and antiferroelectric liquid
crystal effects by means of Gauss equation. In addition, voltage pulses applied
to the simulated antiferroelectric liquid crystal cell, have been considered
under different waveforms for possible driving schemes in display applications.
Results show time evolution of ions within the cell, under different external
applied electric fields and their delocalization from alignment layers when
high frequency AC pulses are included in the structure of the switching
waveform.
