Alignment control of liquid crystal molecules using crack induced self-assembled grooves

Molecule alignment has many significant applications in biotechnology, molecular electronics, optoelectronic devices and liquid crystal (LC) display manufacturing. In this paper, we employ a fast and high-throughput method, fabricating micro- and nano-grooves for the alignment of liquid crystal (LC) molecules. Splitting the polymer film sandwiched by two substrates triggers the propagating wave front to induce self-assembled grooves on the polymer surfaces. This crack-induced grooving (CIG) method not only avoids the high-temperature process, dust and ion contaminations caused by traditional rubbing, but also provides a large anchoring energy comparable to that using polyimide rubbing. This CIG method offers an appealing alternative to existing technologies for LC molecules alignment.