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Morphology And Ordering In Thin Liquid-Crystal Films On Flat Glass Substrates, Yushan Shi, Brian Cull, Satyendra Kumar
Morphology And Ordering In Thin Liquid-Crystal Films On Flat Glass Substrates, Yushan Shi, Brian Cull, Satyendra Kumar
Satyendra Kumar
Results of a high resolution x-ray reflectivity study of growth morphology and ordering of thin liquid-crystal films on flat glass substrate are reported. An adsorbed bilayer of crystalline order, under three dimensional clusters, was found to persist well beyond the nematic to isotropic transition. This adsorbed layer appears to be related to the surface memory effects in liquid-crystal devices. The morphology of these films can be described by the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode.
Mechanism Of Unidirectional Liquid-Crystal Alignment On Polyimides With Linearly Polarized Ultraviolet Light Exposure, M. Nishikawa, Bahman Taheri, John L. West
Mechanism Of Unidirectional Liquid-Crystal Alignment On Polyimides With Linearly Polarized Ultraviolet Light Exposure, M. Nishikawa, Bahman Taheri, John L. West
Bahman Taheri
Unidirectional liquid-crystal(LC) alignment by a linearly polarized ultraviolet light(UV) exposure was examined using two types of polyimide (PI). PI with a fluorene unit incorporated in a side chain showed LC alignment perpendicular to those of conventional PIs, i.e., perpendicular to the rubbing direction and parallel to the exposure polarization of UV. The results of the dichroic ratio measurement of LCcells,UVabsorption spectra,birefringence, infrared absorption spectra, and PI conformation calculations using molecular mechanics suggest that the photodecomposition of PI by UV exposure produces anisotropic van der Waals forces, which align LC along its optical axis.
Tilted Photoalignment Of A Nematic Liquid Crystal Induced By A Magnetic Field, Denis Andrienko, Yuri Kurioz, Yuri Reznikov, Charles Rosenblatt, Rolfe Petschek, Oleg Lavrentovich, Darius Subacius
Tilted Photoalignment Of A Nematic Liquid Crystal Induced By A Magnetic Field, Denis Andrienko, Yuri Kurioz, Yuri Reznikov, Charles Rosenblatt, Rolfe Petschek, Oleg Lavrentovich, Darius Subacius
Oleg Lavrentovich
Nematic liquid crystal cells with polyvinyl cinnamate coated substrates were subjected to ultraviolet light. When this was done in the presence of an oblique magnetic field the photoalignment was found to be temporally and thermally robust, with a large pretilt angle and weak polar anchoring. Moreover, two easy axes with equal and opposite pretilt angle were obtained, such that a magnetic field could switch the director from one easy axis to the other. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.
Light Induced Structures In Liquid Crystalline Side-Chain Polymers With Azobenzene Functional Groups, O. Yaroschuk, Tatiana Sergan, J. Lindau, S. Lee, J. Kelly, Liang-Chy Chien
Light Induced Structures In Liquid Crystalline Side-Chain Polymers With Azobenzene Functional Groups, O. Yaroschuk, Tatiana Sergan, J. Lindau, S. Lee, J. Kelly, Liang-Chy Chien
Liang-Chy Chien
We applied ellipsometry to study the distribution of azobenzene fragments in the films of two types of comblike polymers with azobenzene moieties in the side chains before and after ultraviolet ~UV! light irradiation. The polymer with an alkyl chain at the end of the azobenzene fragment forms structures with preferred homeotropic alignment of the fragments. Irradiation of this polymer with nonpolarized UV light at normal incidence induces a homeotropic alignment of azobenzene fragments. Oblique irradiation induces tilted structures. Polarized UV light irradiation at normal beam incidence induces biaxial structures with a fanlike distribution of azobenzene fragments and preferably out-of-plane alignment. …
Control Of Nematic Director Orientation By Exposing Rubbed Polyimide Films To Linearly Polarized Ultraviolet Light, Jae-Hoon Kim, Yushan Shi, Satyendra Kumar, Sin-Doo Lee
Control Of Nematic Director Orientation By Exposing Rubbed Polyimide Films To Linearly Polarized Ultraviolet Light, Jae-Hoon Kim, Yushan Shi, Satyendra Kumar, Sin-Doo Lee
Satyendra Kumar
The delicate interplay between the effects of mechanical rubbing and subsequent photo-induced chemical reactions on polyimide films has been studied for aligning liquid crystals. Exposure to linearly polarized ultraviolet (LPUV) light was found to profoundly alter the direction and the degree of molecular orientations obtained by rubbing. A simple model is presented to describe the observed changes in the director orientation. The results show that LPUV exposure can be very effectively used to control and fine-tune liquid crystal alignment.