| Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2016) | |
| Thin Films | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session TF-TuP |
| Session: | Thin Films Poster Session |
| Presenter: | Hong-Gyu Park, Changwon National University, Republic of Korea |
| Authors: | H.-G. Park, Changwon National University, Republic of Korea H.Y. Mun, Yonsei University, Korea, Republic of Korea H.-C. Jeong, Yonsei University, Korea, Republic of Korea J.H. Lee, Yonsei University, Korea, Republic of Korea B.-Y. Oh, ZeSHTech Co. Ltd., Republic of Korea D.-S. Seo, Yonsei University, Korea, Republic of Korea |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Liquid crystal display (LCD) technology is still occupying a strong position in the display industry. The orientational control of liquid crystal (LC) molecules is essential for high-quality LCDs and interactions between LC molecules and solid-substrate surfaces are still significant in both fundamental research and industrial applications Achieving sophisticated control and uniform alignment of LCs with a regular pretilt angle on the alignment layer is an important step in the manufacture of LC displays (LCDs). Intensive research on the use of organic or inorganic films as LC alignment layers has been conducted to obtain uniform LC alignment using various alignment techniques such as rubbing, ultraviolet (UV) photoalignment technique, nanoimprint lithography, oblique deposition, and ion-beam (IB) irradiation. Among these, the rubbing process has still attracted much attention in terms of simplicity, high cost-effectivity, and reliability. Recently, transparent inorganic materials have been investigated by many research groups as alignment layers, because of their low power consumption achieved via the reduction of LC threshold voltage. In addition, oxide-based inorganic materials are more durable than organic materials and are insensitive to oxygen and water, which slows the degradation of the device performance compared to organic materials.
We previously reported on LC alignments on aluminum oxide (Al2O3) films deposited using various techniques including atomic layer deposition (ALD), RF magnetron sputter, and e-beam evaporation via IB irradiation. In this paper, we demonstrate the effects of LC alignment on Al2O3 films using a rubbing process. Through a simple technique, uniform and vertical LC alignment was achieved on the Al2O3 films. Optical retardations and contact angles were observed on the Al2O3 films to measure the effect of the rubbing treatment on Al2O3 films. Finally, the electro-optical (EO) characteristics of vertically aligned (VA) cells on Al2O3 films were measured.