Orientation of liquid crystals by surface coupling agents

Abstract

Uniformly oriented thin liquid‐crystal layers are required for most liquid‐crystal device applications and physical investigations. Usual methods for obtaining orientation rely on a substrate interface which has an orienting action on the liquid‐crystal molecules. In previously described methods the orienting interfaces degrade chemically with time, thereby generating a corresponding degradation of the liquid‐crystal orientation. In the present work, silane surface coupling agents are used to obtain chemically stable interfaces and a wide variety of liquid‐crystal orientations.