P‐56: Aligning Liquid Crystals Using Self‐Assembled Monolayers

Abstract

Conventional method of liquid crystal (LC) alignment — rubbing of polyimide film with a cloth — changes the topography of the layer and induces anisotropic orientation of polymer chains along the rubbing direction. Unfortunately, it also generates a lot of debris. Moreover, this method is incompatible with localized control over LC alignment. Recently, anchoring of LC was demonstrated using low energy surfaces from self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) deposited from a liquid phase on gold and silica. We applied Molecular Vapor Deposition (MVD™) technology for anchoring of MLC 6610 liquid crystal to ITO surface. Advantage of vapor‐phase deposition in superior surface quality has been reported elsewhere. Self‐assembled monolayers of perfluorinated chlorosilanes and aminosilanes were used to build LC cell with symmetrical boundary condition and cell gap of 10 um. Anchoring energy of 4.2×10 −4 J/m2 was obtained using capacity method for both types of SAMs. MLC 6610 showed 2.45 V threshold voltage. We observed a uniform vertical alignment of the cell without defects.