Surface nematic liquid crystal bistability on low-symmetry photoalignment micropatterns

We experimentally examined the surface nematic bistability of a liquid crystal cell with four kinds of photoalignment micropatterns, including stripe, herringbone, random dots and random lamella. We checked a necessary condition on the pattern symmetry required for the bistability. The optical properties of the stripe pattern cells were compared with those of the conventional chequer pattern cells, and the effects of the pattern geometry on the optical properties were discussed. Inspired by the results of the random lamella patterns, we proposed a novel and practical method of fabricating large-area bistable patterns.