Abstract
The orientation of liquid crystal molecules is very sensitive towards contacting surfaces, and this phenomenon is critical during the fabrication of liquid crystal display panels, as well as optical and memory devices. To date, research has focused on designing and modifying solid surfaces. Here we report an approach to control the orientation of liquid crystals from the free (air) surface side: a skin layer at the free surface was prepared using a non-photoresponsive liquid crystalline polymer film by surface segregation or inkjet printing an azobenzene-containing liquid crystalline block copolymer. Both planar-planar and homoeotropic-planar mode patterns were readily generated. This strategy is applicable to various substrate systems, including inorganic substrates and flexible polymer films. These versatile processes require no modification of the substrate surface and are therefore expected to provide new opportunities for the fabrication of optical and mechanical devices based on liquid crystal alignment.
Highlights
The orientation of liquid crystal molecules is very sensitive towards contacting surfaces, and this phenomenon is critical during the fabrication of liquid crystal display panels, as well as optical and memory devices
We report the first examples of polymer liquid crystals (LCs) systems commanded by a skin layer at the free surface (Fig. 1, right)
The low molecular mass nematic LCs used in LC display panels are highly fluid and sandwiched between two solid substrate walls; the LC orientations are influenced only by the solid surfaces
Summary
The orientation of liquid crystal molecules is very sensitive towards contacting surfaces, and this phenomenon is critical during the fabrication of liquid crystal display panels, as well as optical and memory devices. We report an approach to control the orientation of liquid crystals from the free (air) surface side: a skin layer at the free surface was prepared using a non-photoresponsive liquid crystalline polymer film by surface segregation or inkjet printing an azobenzenecontaining liquid crystalline block copolymer Both planar-planar and homoeotropic-planar mode patterns were readily generated. We report the first examples of polymer LC systems commanded by a skin layer at the free surface (Fig. 1, right) This approach was inspired by our recent results showing that the surface coverage on the free surface of photoresponsive azobenzene side chain LC polymer films leads to a homoeotropic to planar orientational change in the mesogenic groups across the entire film[21,22]. New photoalignment methods for the LC polymer films are proposed
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