Photoinduced alignment control of discotic liquid crystals

Abstract

Discotic liquid crystals possess versatile applicabilities for electronics and photonics over calamitic ones so that increasing efforts have been made on developing disk-shaped molecules, aiming at the elucidation of the structure-function relationship. We report herein a novel approach to discotic liquid crystal alignment, which was accomplished by using a thin film of a polymer bearing azobenzene side chains. A polymer film irradiated obliquely with nonpolarized light gave rise to the orientational control of discotic liquid crystals as a result of three-dimensionally photoaligned azobenzene side chains.