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Abstract
Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are a unique approach for the liquid crystal (LC) alignment in electro-optical applications such as displays. Herein, a new methodology for photo-switchable LC alignment layer using an azosilane monomer and LC mixture system in the absence of any other foreign alignment layer is presented. The azosilane monomer spontaneously separated from the host LCs, and formed a stable monolayer network on the substrate surface. Data from X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS), spectroscopic elipsometry (SE), water contact angle and LC alignment studies confirmed that, in the azosilane and LC mixture system, azosilane makes an in situ SAM that is capable of photo-switchable LC alignment layer on glass and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. The LCs are aligned with respect to change in the photo-isomerisation of the azo molecule.
Acknowledgements
Dr. M.R.V thanks the BK 21 Project and the Government of Korea for financial support in the form of a post-doctoral fellowship. The authors are wishing to acknowledge Dr. Thambi, Mr. Balaji, Dr. Gana, Mr. Raja, and Dr. Karthik for discussing during the manuscript preparation. The authors thank Mr. Lim for conducting theoretical molecular model. This work is supported by Merck Advanced Technologies Ltd., and by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 2012R1A1A1012167), and by the Technology Innovation Program (No. 10041596) funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE, Korea).