Homeotropic Alignment Properties of Nematic Liquid Crystals using a photo-alignment technique

Abstract

We have studied the UV-exposure effect on the polar anchoring energy of homeotropically-aligned liquid crystal (LC) samples. With increasing UV exposure energy to an alignment film, the wettability of LC on the film is increased, resulting in decreasing the polar anchoring energy of the sample. This result indicates that the surface density of alkyl-side-chains is decreased with UV light exposure to an alignment film, and this reduction of the surface alkyl-side-chain density results in changing the wetting property of LC and the polar anchoring energy of the sample