RELATION AMONG MICROSTRUCTURE OF RUBBING FIBER, SHAPE OF THE MICROGROOVE OF RUBBED POLYMER AND ITS ANCHORING STRENGTH

To clarify the surface alignment mechanism of liquid crystal in detail , we have tried a simplified rubbing by using only one fiber, which we call ''one-fiber-rubbing'', and observed the microgroove. Then, we co mpared the curvature of microgroove structure observed by atomic force microscope (AFM) and friction force microscope (FFM) with that of the fiber observed by scanning erectron microscope (SEM). From the result , we confirmed that they agreed well with each other. Therefore, we co ncluded that the microgroove is formed by micro-structure of the fiber edge. We also measured anchoring strength of the rubbed polymer surfa ces with various pitch of the microgroove. From the result, we found t hat the anchoring strength is almost proprotional to the ratio of the total area of each microgroove in unit area.