The liquid-crystal (LC) alignment properties of surface relief gratings (SRGs) of different azo polymers and their correlations with grating parameters and polarizations of writing beams were studied.Three azo polymers with different kinds of azo chromophores and different chromophore densities were used in this study.The contrasts (Tmax/Tmin) and optical photographs of different liquid crystal cells were compared to determine the alignment properties.For the gratings with a period of 800 nm recorded by p+p interfering Ar+ laser beams on the epoxy based azo polymer containing 4-cyanoazobenzene chromophores (BP-AZ-CN) films
the ability for aligning liquid crystal increased with the increase of grating depths.For gratings of the epoxy based azo polymer containing 4-carboxylazobenzene chromophores (BP-AZ-CA) with a period of 800 nm and the gratings of the polyacrylate based azo polymer containing 4-carboxylazobenzene chromophores (PA-AZ-CA) with a period of 1200 nm
the liquid crystal showed uniform alignment when the grating depth was in a range from 16 to 100 nm.For the BP-AZ-CA gratings with a similar depth
the liquid crystal showed better alignment on the gratings with a period of 800 nm than gratings with a period of 1200 nm.Compared with BP-AZ-CA and PA-AZ-CA gratings with a period of 1200 nm
liquid crystal shows a better alignment on the PA-AZ-CA gratings.For the PA-AZ-CA gratings inscribed by RCP+LCP interfering Ar+ laser beams
no unidirectional alignment was observed even for the gratings depths over 100 nm.Above results can offer a better understanding of the effect of polymer structures and grating parameters on the liquid crystal alignment performance.
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Department of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Tsinghua University
Institute of Advanced Materials/College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University
Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Polymers of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University
Institute of Advanced Materials, Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays, Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Key Laboratory of Intelligent Optical Sensing and Manipulation, Nanjing University