A New Method to Align Smectic Liquid Crystals by Photo-Polymerization

<jats:p> A novel technique to produce planar and homeotropic alignment of smectic liquid crystals is presented. The technique is based on producing an anisotropic polymer network in the bulk by photo-polymerizing a mixture of photoresist material and liquid crystal by linearly polarized UV-light. Both uniform planar alignment and homeotropic alignment can be obtained depending on the curing conditions. In the case of planar alignment, the orientation of liquid crystal molecules is governed by the direction of the polarization vector of the UV-light, thus making it possible to produce a defined azimuthal orientation of the liquid crystal director. This technique obviates the need to give any previous treatment to the bounding substrates. </jats:p>