Vertical alignment of liquid crystal on $a-SiO_x$film by using $Ar^+$ beam

We demonstrate the vertical alignment of liquid crystal on $a-SiO_x$ film surface using the ion beam exposure. Liquid crystal can be aligned vertically by the rotational oblique evaporation of $a-SiO_x$ film. However, the electro-optic switching behavior of liquid crystal along random directions results in disclination lines. We found that we can achieve highly uniform alignment of liquid crystal without disclination lines by using the ion beam exposure. We found from XRD and XPS data that the vertical alignment can be achieved when x approaches 1.5 at the $a-SiO_x$ film surface. We have shown that the pretilt angle can be controlled by changing ion beam parameters, such as the ion beam energy, the angle of incidence, and the exposure time. We found that whether liquid crystals can be aligned vertically or homogeneously on $a-SiO_x$ film can be predicted simply by measuring the change in optical transmittance by deposition of $a-SiO_x$ thin film layers. We also have shown that a liquid crystal cell aligned vertically by the ion beam exposure exhibits the voltage-transmittance curve similar to that of a rubbed polyimide cell.