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Abstract
A technique based on bulk-induced alignment of liquid crystals by photo-polymerization to produce uniform planar and homeotropic orientation of liquid crystals is presented. The liquid crystal-photopolymer mixture is cured with linearly polarized UV-light in the isotropic phase. This technique obviates the need to give any special treatment to the bounding substrate and as such is independent of the nature of the substrate. This has given rise to possibilities of using liquid crystals for storing information with a high degree of spatial resolution of 10–20μm and has been used to generate patterned orientation of liquid crystals.
The homeotropic alignment in the smectic C phase has opened up new possibilities to make storage displays. The surface studies of the photopolymer aligned substrate with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope suggest that the surface modification dominates the alignment of liquid crystals.