Superior optical properties of homogeneous liquid crystal alignment on a tin (IV) oxide surface sequentially modulated via ion beam irradiation

We first investigated the alignment characteristics of tin (IV) oxide (SnO(2)) thin films deposited by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. This study demonstrates that liquid crystal (LC) molecules could be aligned homogeneously by controlling the Ion Beam (IB) irradiation energy densities. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2010-10, Vol.18 (21), p.21594-21602
Main Authors: Kang, Young-Gu, Park, Hong-Gyu, Kim, Hyung-Jun, Kim, Young-Hwan, Oh, Byeong-Yun, Kim, Byoung-Yong, Kim, Dai-Hyun, Seo, Dae-Shik
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We first investigated the alignment characteristics of tin (IV) oxide (SnO(2)) thin films deposited by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. This study demonstrates that liquid crystal (LC) molecules could be aligned homogeneously by controlling the Ion Beam (IB) irradiation energy densities. We also show that the pretilt angle of the LC molecules has a close relation with the surface energy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates that a non-stoichiometric SnO(2-x) surface converted by ion beam irradiation can horizontally align the LC molecules. The measured electro-optical (EO) characteristics showed high performance, comparable with those of rubbed and ion-beam irradiated polyimide (PI) layers.
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.18.021594