Super fast switching and low operating of liquid crystals sandwiched between ion beam-spurted ITO thin layers

ABSTRACT

Ion beam (IB)-spurted indium tin oxide (ITO) thin layers are used to align liquid crystals (LC) with a lower driving voltage. During IB spurting process, the microcrystals transforming to large crystals of ITO is intimated by the change of In (3d), Sn (3d) and O (1s) core level in XPS spectra and the surface topology modifications in SEM and AFM images, and IB-spurted ITO thin layers are comparably transparent and conductive compared with ITO thin layers. The increased interactions between LC and IB-spurted ITO thin layers together with the roughed surface topology of ITO thin layers are the main causes for LC alignment. The fast response and distribution of electrical dipoles to external voltage in LC causes LC’s extremely low threshold voltage drive; in addition, LC directly aligned on ITO thin layers free from alignment layers shield effect further decreases LC’s threshold voltage. 1.8-keV IB-spurted ITO thin layers are more appropriate to align LC with the threshold voltage of 0.4853 V and the rising time of 0.237 ms.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• ITO thin layers
• liquid crystals alignment
• ion beam spurting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Yang Liu thanks the financial support from Shanghai Sailing Program (No. 18YF1400900), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232018D3-29), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Young Professors at Donghua University (No. 104-07-0053027); Jiatong Sun thanks the financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2232017D-10); Huashan Liu thanks the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 17ZR1400100).