Ultrafast Laser Nanostructured ITO Acts as Liquid Crystal Alignment Layer and Higher Transparency Electrode

Electrodes with higher transparency that can also align liquid crystals (LCs) are of high importance for improved costs and energy consumption of LC displays. Here we demonstrate for the first time alignment of liquid crystals on femtosecond laser nanostructured indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Solodar, A, Cerkauskaite, A, Drevinskas, R, Kazansky, P G, Abdulhalim, I
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 27.02.2018
Subjects
Alignment
Anchoring
Displays
Electrodes
Energy consumption
Energy costs
Energy levels
Femtosecond pulsed lasers
Indium tin oxides
Lasers
Liquid crystals
Nanostructure
Photonics
Photosensitivity
Relaxation time
Spin coating
Substrates
Ultrafast lasers
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Summary:Electrodes with higher transparency that can also align liquid crystals (LCs) are of high importance for improved costs and energy consumption of LC displays. Here we demonstrate for the first time alignment of liquid crystals on femtosecond laser nanostructured indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass exhibiting also higher transparency due to the less interface reflections. The nano paterns were created by fs laser directlly on ITO films without any additional spin coating materials or lithography procces. Nine regions of laser-induced nanostructures were fabricated with different alignment orientations and various pulse energy levels on top of the ITO. The device interfacial anchoring energy was found to be comparable to the anchoring energy of nematic LC on photosensitive polymers. The device exhibits contrast of 30:1 and relaxation time of 330ms expected for thick LC devices. The measured transparency of the LC device with two ITO nanograting substrates is 10% higher than the uniform ITO film based LC devices. The alignment methodology presented here paves the way for improved LC displays and new structured LC photonic devices.
ISSN:2331-8422