Flow-induced high pretilt alignment of liquid crystalline molecules on polymer surface evaluated by optical second-harmonic generation

Abstract The alignment of liquid crystalline molecules at the interface between liquid crystal and polyimide surface was investigated on the basis of an optical second-harmonic generation method. It was confirmed for the first time that a uniform alignment of liquid crystalline molecules with a pretilt of about 10° was achieved by simply flowing the liquid crystal on the polyimide-coated substrate surface which produced no pretilt by a standard rubbing treatment.