PB05 Photocontrolled orientation of liquid crystals by polarizing photosensitization

Abstract

The surface-mediated photocontrol of liquid crystal (LC) alignment triggered by photochemical changes in structures as well as orientations of photoreactive molecular and polymeric thin films has been attracting extensive interest. We report herein a novel strategy of LC photoalignment triggered by the polarization triplet energy transfer from a sensitizer to cinnamates. A sensitizer-doped polymer film exposed to polarized light gave rise to the photocontrollability of LC alignment as a result of photoaligned cinnamates induced by the polarization triplet energy transfer.