Materials Stabilized Liquid Crystal Molecules on Chemically Modulated Polystyrene Surface Using Various Ion Beam Exposure Time

Abstract

This paper introduces homogeneous liquid crystal (LC) orientations on chemically modulated polystyrene (PS) surfaces using various ion beam (IB) exposure times. Transparent PS was replaced with conventional polyimide material. As a non-contact process, the IB bombardment process induced LC orientation parallel to the IB process. Through x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, it was shown that the chemical compositional changes of the IB-irradiated PS surfaces were determined as a function of IB exposure time. Using this analysis, the optimal IB bombardment condition was determined at an IB exposure time of up to 15 seconds. Moreover, thermal stability on IB-irradiated PS surfaces were carried out which showed that a relatively high IB exposure time induced a thermally stable LC alignment property.

Solution-Derived Hafnium Lanthanum Oxide Films Prepared Using Ion-Beam Irradiation and Their Applications as Alignment Layers for Twisted-Nematic Liquid Crystal Displays

“…Because of its simplicity and cost effectiveness, the rubbing method is most commonly used to induce anisotropy in the LC alignment layer [4]. However, mechanical contact with a roller can introduce a number of drawbacks such as electrostatic charge accumulation, broken debris, and film damage [3,[5][6][7].…”