Photoalignment of liquid crystals on chalcogenide glass As20Se80 surface

Abstract

Photoalignment of nematic liquid crystals on the chalcogenide glass As20Se80 surface is studied by the digital processing of the optical textures of light-induced twist deformations of a liquid crystal (LC) in a cell irradiated with Gaussian polarized light. The original experimental method allowed obtaining the dependence of the light-induced twist angle for the As20Se80 surface on the exposure dose by the analysis of the only irradiated spot. The dependences of the light-induced twist angle on the exposure dose are found to be qualitatively different for LC 5CB and LC E7, which points on a possibility of different mechanisms of photoalignment on chalcogenide glass. © 2012.