Formation behavior of surface structures using molecular diffusion induced by stripe-patterned photopolymerization

Abstract

Control of the surface topology plays an important role in improvement of the functionality for a wide variety of applications utilizing adhesiveness, diffraction, and so on. Various methods have been proposed to control the surface topology in liquid-crystalline films. In particular, light irradiation enables precise and reversible control of the surface topology in a non-contact manner. Recently, we have proposed a novel approach to forming surface relief structures through a patterned photopolymerization and a resultant molecular diffusion. However, the detailed formation mechanism of the surface relief structures remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated the formation behavior of the surface structure from the viewpoint of molecular alignment.