Abstract
In order to investigate the photoalignment mechanism of nematic liquid crystals on a polymer film, a new photoreactive polymer having chalcone groups as side chains was synthesized. Linearly polarized UV light causes preferential photoreactions of the chalcone unit along the polarization direction and thus induces the anisotrpy in the polymer alignment layer resulting in homogeneous LC alignment perpendicular to the polarization direction. The sequential investigations of photoalignment generated by the preferential E/Z isomerization and (2+2) cycloaddition reactions show that either photoreaction can solely induce the LC alignment in the direction perpendicular to UV polarization.