The authors demonstrate the production of amorphous fluorinated carbon (a-C:F) thin film with adjustable wetting properties, inducing variable liquid crystal (LC) pretilt angles. To control the surface wetting properties, they apply a dual radio frequency magnetron system with a controlled power ratio of targets. In this manner we obtain various compositional surfaces with fluorine and carbon components and adjust the surface energy with regard to the various compositions. Whereas the fluorine-rich a-C:F layer shows a preference for homeotropic (vertical) LC alignment, the carbon-rich a-C:F layer shows a planar LC alignment. To achieve uniform LC alignment with a proper pretilt angle, an accelerated Ar+ ion beam irradiates the films after the deposition process. The ion beam selectively destroys the surface bonding of the a-C:F films, yielding an intermediate pretilt angle.

We report a new strategy, the directional peeling of a rigiflex mold with a nanostructure, to overcome several problems with general patterning techniques for liquid‐crystal (LC) alignment. These include difficulty in generating the pretilt angle and in controlling the LC rising‐up direction, formation of local domains, and weak optical properties. The directional peeling of the rigiflex mold results in pretilt‐angle formation and controls the LC rising‐up direction. In addition, a nanostructure with small spacing aligns the LC with a high order parameter because of a strong confinement effect and suppresses diffraction due to its small spacing. Eventually, the nanostructure achieves improvements in the optical properties. In summary, while recent patterning techniques for LC alignment only solve one problem, the directional peeling of the rigiflex mold with a nanostructure simultaneously overcomes several problems with LC alignment and optical properties.

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We synthesized a series of n‐alkylthiomethyl‐substituted polystyrenes (#T‐PS, # = 4, 8, 12, and 16) and n‐alkylsulfonylmethyl‐substituted polystyrenes (#S‐PS, # = 4, 8, 12, and 16), where # is the number of carbon atoms in the n‐alkyl side group of the polymers, using polymer analogous reactions to investigate their liquid crystal (LC) alignment properties. In general, the LC cell fabricated using the polymer film having a longer n‐alkyl side group, a thioether linkage group, and a higher molar content of n‐alkyl side group showed homeotropic LC alignment behavior with a pretilt angle of about 90°. The homeotropic alignment behavior was well correlated with the surface energy of the polymer films; when the positive dielectric anisotropic LC (ZLI‐5900‐000 from Merck) and negative dielectric anisotropic LC (MLC‐7026‐000 from Merck) were used to fabricate the LC cells, homeotropic alignment was observed when the surface energy values of the polymer were smaller than about 25 and 32 mJ/m2, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.