Abstract: The liquid crystal display device of this invention includes a pair of substrates and a liquid crystal layer including liquid crystal molecules having a negative dielectric anisotropy interposed between the pair of substrates, vertical alignment layers being formed on surfaces of the pair of substrates in contact with the liquid crystal layer, a voltage being applied across the liquid crystal layer by voltage application means formed on the pair of substrates, the liquid crystal molecules being oriented substantially vertical to the pair of substrate when no voltage is applied, wherein a plurality of column structures are provided so as to be at least partly in contact with the pair of substrates, and the liquid crystal layer has a plurality of liquid crystal domains in a direction in the plane of the substrates, and, when a voltage is applied, orientation directions of the liquid crystal molecules are continuous in each of the liquid crystal domains, while the orientation directions of liquid crystal molecul

Abstract: A plasma address liquid crystal display device having a flat panel structure which is composed of display cells and plasma cells bonded to one another with an intermediate sheet, and in which position registration tolerance between the display and plasma cells can be made less strict. A plasma cell 2 has discharge channels 5 extending in the row direction. The display cell 1 has a electro-optical device 9 and signal electrodes 10 extending along the column direction. Pixels 11 are defined at the points of intersections of the signal electrodes 10 and the discharge channels 5. The electro-optical device 9 is a set of finely partitioned liquid crystal areas 15 and is controlled in orientation to axis-symmetrical orientation. The liquid crystal areas 15 are continuously arrayed at a constant pitch DP finer than an arraying pitch CP of the pixels 11 at least in the column direction. This structure can be extensively applied to the active matrix type liquid crystal display device.