Vertical alignment of liquid crystal through ion beam exposure on oxygen-doped SiC films deposited at room temperature

The authors report the vertical alignment of liquid crystal (LC) through the ion beam exposure on amorphous oxygen-doped SiC (SiOC) film surfaces deposited at room temperature. The optical transmittance of these films was similar to that of polyimide layers, but much higher than that of SiOx films. The light leakage of a LC cell aligned vertically on SiOC films was much lower than those of a LC cell aligned on polyimide layers or other inorganic films. They found that LC molecules align vertically on ion beam treated SiOC film when the roughness of the electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) data is high on the SiOC film surface, while they align homogeneously when the roughness of the EFM data is low.