Micro-contact printing method for patterning liquid crystal alignment layers

Abstract

We propose a patterning method of liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer for producing multi-domain LC structures. By controlling thermal conditions during micro-contact printing procedures and facilitating wetting properties of patterning materials, patterned LC orientation can be easily obtained on a bare ITO surface or other polymer films. The newly proposed patterning method is expected to be a very useful tool for fabricating multi-domain LC structures to enhance or design electro-optic properties of LC-based devices.