Atomic beam alignment of liquid crystals

We have found that liquid crystals can be aligned on a polyimide surface exposed to a low energy and neutral argon ion beam. The energy of the incident ions was varied between 75 eV and 500eV, the integrated current density from 20 μA/cm2 to 500 μA/cm2, and the angle of incidence over which alignment was measured was between 10° and 80°. The pretilt angle of the liquid crystals could be varied between 0° and 10°, by controlling the processing conditions.