Atomic Beam Alignment of Liquid Crystals

We have found that liquid crystals can be aligned on a polyimide surface exposed to a low energy and neutral argon ion beam. The energy of the incident ions was varied between 75 eV and 500 eV, the integrated current density from 20 µA/cm2 to 500 µA/cm2, and the angle of incidence over which alignment was measured was between 10° and 80°. The pretilt angle of the liquid crystals could be varied between 0° and 10°, by controlling the processing conditions.