Polymer-Layer-Free Alignment for Fast Switching Nematic Liquid Crystals by Multifunctional Nanostructured Substrate

Woo-Bin Jung; Hyeon Su Jeong; Hwan-Jin Jeon; Yun Ho Kim; Jeong Yeon Hwang; Jae-Hoon Kim; Hee-Tae Jung

doi:10.1002/adma.201502641

Polymer-Layer-Free Alignment for Fast Switching Nematic Liquid Crystals by Multifunctional Nanostructured Substrate

Adv Mater. 2015 Nov;27(42):6760-6. doi: 10.1002/adma.201502641. Epub 2015 Sep 29.

Authors

Woo-Bin Jung¹, Hyeon Su Jeong², Hwan-Jin Jeon³, Yun Ho Kim⁴, Jeong Yeon Hwang^{5

6}, Jae-Hoon Kim⁶, Hee-Tae Jung¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK-21 plus), National Laboratory for Organic Opto-Electronic Materials/Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea.
² Soft Innovative Materials Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Eunha-ri San 101, Bongdong-eup, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, 565-905, South Korea.
³ Department ent of Nano-structured Materials Research, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea.
⁴ Division of Advanced Materials, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), 141 Gajeongro, Yuseong, Daejeon, 305-600, South Korea.
⁵ Beam Engineering for Advanced Measurements Co, 809 South Orlando Ave, Suite I, Winter Park, FL, 32789, USA.
⁶ Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, South Korea.

PMID: 26418973
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201502641

Abstract

A novel polymer-layer-free system for liquid-crystal alignment is demonstrated by various shaped indium tin oxide (ITO) patterns. Liquid crystals are aligned along the ITO line pattern and secondary sputtering lithography can change the shape of the ITO line pattern. Different shapes can control the direction and size of the pretilt angle. This effect eliminates defects and reduces the response time.

Keywords: indium tin oxide; liquid crystals; nanopatterns; pretilt angles.