Photoinduced liquid crystal alignment based on a surface relief grating inan assembled cell

Surface relief gratings have been optically inscribed on azopolymer films o n the interior surface of an empty liquid crystal (LC) cell. Uniform LC ali gnment is observed in the inscribed regions when the cell is filled. Since the microgrooves are on both sides, this may provide a higher degree of ord er than other techniques. The stability of the relief gratings and the tran smittance of the azopolymer films can be further improved by photobleaching . This alignment technique could have useful applications in the in-plane s witching LC displays. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(9 9)02325-6].