Electro-optical properties of a nematic liquid crystal aligned with a mixture of nanofibres and polyimide

Abstract

We examined the electro-optical properties of a nematic liquid crystal sample whose substrates were coated with a mixture of nanofibres (NFs) and polyimide (PI). The samples coated with a NF–PI mixture showed a faster turn-off time than the sample coated with pure PI. We found that the elastic constant and the order parameter of the NF–PI samples were greater than those of the pure PI sample, thus inducing the reduction in turn-off time. The NF–PI mixture-coated surface showed a more homogeneous striped surface topology along the rubbing direction compared to the pure PI surface. The uniform topological anisotropy of the surface seems to be related to the increase in the elastic constant and the order parameter of the NF–PI mixture sample.