Designing of Smectic Layer Alignment by Optical Patterning Using Smectic Layer Rotation

摘要

We have proposed and demonstrated two optical patterning methods for designing smectic layer alignment based on smectic layer rotation induced by applying asymmetric voltage pulses. Patterning was realized by the application of the asymmetric voltage pulses and selective laser irradiation. Two dependences of rotation rate were utilized: a dependence on temperature in the SmC* phase and a dependence on phase between SmC" and, SmA. The pattern consisting of more than two layer alignments has been realized. The pattern with two stripes at 90 deg to each other was used to examine the effects of anisotropy on the proposed methods, and it was found that there were the anisotropic properties in the proposed, methods.