Liquid crystal alignment properties of 2-naphthoxymethyl-substituted polystyrenes

Abstract

The liquid crystal (LC) alignment properties of LC cells fabricated with films of 2-naphthoxymethyl-substituted polystyrenes with different contents of naphthoxymethyl side groups were investigated. The polymer films exhibited good optical transparency in the visible light region (400-700nm). The LC cells made from the unrubbed films of polymers having more than 57mol% of 2-naphthoxymethyl containing monomeric units showed homeotropic LC alignment with a high pretilt angle of about 90o. Good electro-optical characteristics, such as the threshold voltage, response time, voltage holding ratio and residual DC voltage were observed for the LC cells fabricated with the polymer having 100mol% of 2-naphthoxymethyl containing monomeric units as an LC alignment layer.