Surface Polarization State of Ferroelectric Nematic Cells with Various Alignments

Abstract

Recently, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystal (FNLC) materials, in which ferroelectricity is observed in the nematic liquid crystal phase state with high symmetry, have been discovered and have attracted attention from both fundamental and applied perspectives. Control of spontaneous polarization is essential for device applications that take advantage of their characteristics. In a previous study, we found that the polarization direction is fixed on the surface of rubbed polyimide film, but the orientation mechanism and detailed polarization distribution are still unknown. We have investigated the polarization state on the interface of FNLCs induced by various alignment treatments and found that fixing polarization direction is due to the pretilt angle.