• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.251-257
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• 2004

The nature of the nematic liquid crystal (LC) alignment induced by the rubbed polyimide (PI) alignment layers (ALs) and the electro-optical (EO) properties of the LC cells are expected to depend on the chemical and physical features of the PI. By employing five pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA)-type PIs having different functionalities, we have studied the effects of the PI's structure and chemistry on the alignment characteristics and the cell's EO properties. Increasing the flexibility of the PI increases the pretilt angle and tends to improve the alignment stability. On the other hand, the rigid, fluorinated PI displays poor stability for LCs and induces a less stable/uniform LC alignment and, subsequently, a small pre tilt angle. It also transpired that fluorination of the PI deteriorated the voltage-transmittance characteristics and the voltage holding ratio; increasing the flexibility of the PI structure improves these EO properties. The finding that the qualitative trends for the PI's functionalities are similar for both the alignment and EO properties suggests that the EO properties are closely related to the alignment characteristics, which are determined by short-range interactions between LC and PI molecules.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.611-614
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• 2003

We have investigated electric field effect on the formation of phase separated composite organic film structure which is utilized by anisotropic phase separation from LC and prepolymer mixtures. Application of bias field resulted in a significant change in liquid crystal alignment between glass substrate and polymer layer. The liquid crystal molecules segregated into the inter-electrodes and formed twisted structure which is the result of imprinting of LC alignment by the bias field on polymer layers during polymerization process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1996.05a
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• pp.232-234
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• 1996

We have investigated the effect of molecular structure of polymer of rubbed polyimide (PI) films for surface liquid crystal alignment. To obtain surface alignment effect of Polymer molecular structure, we measured the polar (out of plane-tilt) anchoring strength and surface ordering of 5CB on rubbed PI surfaces. We have found that the polar anchoring strength of 5CB is depend on the polymer molecular structure of these unidirectionally rubbed PI surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.311-312
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• 2006

We studied homeotropic alignment effect for a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) on the $SiO_x$, thin film irradiated by the new ion beam method $SiO_x$ thin films were deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and were treated by the DuoPIGatron ion source. A uniform liquid crystal alignment effect was achieved over 2100 eV ion beam energy. Tilt angle were about $90^{\circ}$ and were not affected by various ion beam energy.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.357-360
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• 2019

We demonstrate an alignment technology using an imprinting process on an inorganic NiOx film. The aligned nanopattern was fabricated on a silicon wafer by laser interference lithography. The aligned nano pattern was then imprinted onto the sol-gel driven NiOx film using an imprinting process at an annealing temperature of $150^{\circ}C$. After the imprinting process, parallel grooves had been formed on the NiOx film. Atomic force microscopy and water contact angle measurements were performed to confirm the parallel groove on the NiOx film. The grooves caused liquid crystal alignment through geometric restriction, similar to grooves formed by the rubbing process on polyimide. The liquid crystal cell exhibited a pretilt angle of $0.2^{\circ}$, which demonstrated homogeneous alignment.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.611-614
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• 2006

Sum-frequency vibrational spectroscopy (SFVS) has been used to study the molecular orientations at the polymer surfaces for liquid crystal alignment. Various molecular orientations appear at the surface depending on various types of surface treatments and polymers.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.284-287
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• 2017

This paper introduces liquid crystal (LC) alignment and its electro-optical properties in the LC cells with silver nanowire (AgNW) networks. The AgNW network was used as an electrode of LC cell as a substitute for an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) film. LC alignment characteristics in the LC cell using AgNW networks, which have two different sheet resistances of $60{\Omega}/m^2$ and $80{\Omega}/m^2$, were observed. The LC alignment characteristics including pretilt angle, LC alignment state, and thermal stability are similar irrespective of sheet resistance of AgNW network. However, twisted-nematic (TN)-LC cell normally operated when using AgNW network with sheet resistance of $80{\Omega}/m^2$. Electrooptical properties of TN-LC cell exhibited competitive performance compared to those of TN-LC cell based on conventional ITO electrode, which allow new approaches to replace conventional ITO electrode in display technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.177-180
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• 2000

In this study, we investigated the pretilt angle generation and liquid crystal (LC) alignment by ultraviolet (UV) exposure during imidization of polyimide on the polymer with side chain. The generated pretilt angle of nematic (N) LC using in-situ photo-alignment method was smaller than that of the conventional UV photo-alignment method. Also, the generated pretilt angle of NLC tends to increase by annealing.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.477-480
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• 1998

In this paper, we investigated the liquid crystal(LC) alignment and generation of pretilt angle by using photo-alignment techniques on two kinds of polyimide(PI) surface, It was found that the uniform alignment for nematic(N) LC is obtained in a cell with slanted UV light irradiation on PI surface without side chain. We successfully observed that the pretilt angle of NLC is generated about $3^{\circ}$ with an incident angle of 70 degree on the PI surface without side chain. It is considered that the pretilt angle generation in NLC is attributed to interaction between the LC molecules and the polymer surfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.130-132
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• 2001

The mechanisms of pretilt angle generation in nematic liquid crystal (NLC) with negative dielectric anisotropy on a rubbed polyimide (PI) surface for homeotropic alignment were studied. The pretilt angle of negative type NLC was smaller than that of the positive type NLC for all rubbing strength regions on the rubbed PI surface. The pretilt angle generated in NLC does not attributable to steric interaction between the fluorine moiety of NLC and the polymer surface on the rubbed PI surface. Consequently, the mechanism of the pretilt angle generation for homeotropic alignment is different from the one for homogeneous alignment.