Permanent photoalignment of liquid crystals on nanostructured chalcogenide glassy thin films

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 98; no. 7; pp. 071909 - 071909-3
• Main Authors: Gelbaor, Miri, Klebanov, Matvey, Lyubin, Victor, Abdulhalim, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics 14-02-2011
• Subjects: ALIGNMENT; ANISOTROPY; ARSENIC COMPOUNDS; ARSENIC SULFIDES; BEAMS; CHALCOGENIDES; CHEMISTRY; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; CRYSTALS; DIMENSIONS; ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION; FABRICATION; FASTENING; FLUIDS; GLASS; IRRADIATION; JOINING; LIQUID CRYSTALS; LIQUIDS; NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; NANOSTRUCTURES; PHOTOCHEMISTRY; POLARIZED BEAMS; RADIATIONS; SULFIDES; SULFUR COMPOUNDS; SURFACES; THICKNESS; THIN FILMS; VISIBLE RADIATION
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3555630

Photoalignment of nematic liquid crystals is obtained on the chalcogenide glassy thin film of
As
2
S
3
using irradiation with polarized blue light. A uniform homogeneously aligned device is obtained with high contrast and strong anchoring. The device alignment quality is permanent as checked by following its functionality over a period of few months. The origin of the observed photoalignment is attributed to the photoinduced anisotropy in chalcogenide glasses. No differences between the different
As
2
S
3
film thicknesses observed, thus supporting the proposition that some orientational order is photoinduced on the surface of the glass and responsible for the photoalignment.