Reznikov Y, Ostroverkhova O, Singer KD, Kim JH, Kumar S, Lavrentovich O, Wang B, West JL. Photoalignment of liquid crystals by liquid crystals.
Phys Rev Lett 2000;
84:1930-1933. [PMID:
11017663 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.84.1930]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/1999] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
We observed light-induced alignment of the nematic liquid crystal, 4, 4(')-n-pentylcyanobiphenyl (5CB), on a fused quartz. Irradiation of the adsorbed layer with polarized ultraviolet light produced homogeneous alignment in a 5CB-filled liquid crystal cell with the easy orientation axis perpendicular to the polarization direction. The measured anchoring energy increases with illumination up to 10(-4) erg/cm (2). Phase retardation and pretilt measurements confirmed near homogeneous alignment of the LC in a cell, while the polarization dependence of second harmonic generation suggested a near normal alignment of the adsorbed layer. We believe that light-induced rearrangement or phototransformation of the adsorbed layer causes the observed phenomenon.
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