Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals Science and Technology. Section A. Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, Vol.368, 4341-4348, 2001
Fabrication of the alignment layer with cavities by using two dimensional template of polystyrene latex array
Two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrays of small latex particles have been concentrated because of their possibilities of various applications in the optical storage medium, electronics, and optical photonic crystal in templates, The two-dimensional polystyrene latex particles are easily packed in highly oriented layers over a wide surface area due to water evaporation and lateral capillary forces. The latex array could be dissolved out by solvents after making a regular structure of polymer matrix. Nematic liquid crystal between the polymer structure with regular cavities showed a random orientation. Each cavity could act as a liquid crystal cell with random alignment of liquid crystals. The highly ordered arrays with polystyrene latex and its application to liquid crystal alignments have been studied.