Tilted homeotropic alignment using ion beam process: Development of novel inorganic thin films

The ion beam alignment technique is one of the potential and fascinating methods. However, there are merely a few reports about aligning nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) horizontally for in-plane switching mode (IPS) by means of low energy ion beam exposure on inorganic materials such as DLC. In this study, we have investigated the tilted vertical alignment of NLC by the ion beam technique on the thin films of various amorphous silicon compounds as new inorganic alignment materials. Appropriate pretilt angles of NLC with preferred orientation on these thin films were achieved. And the electro-optic property of vertically aligned single-domain cells has been investigated.