Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 42 (2003) pp. 6992-6997  |Next Article|  |Table of Contents|
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Polarization-Independent Liquid Crystal Grating Fabricated by Microrubbing Process

Michinori Honma and Toshiaki Nose

(Received June 13, 2003; accepted August 12, 2003; published November 10, 2003)

A novel rubbing process for generating a very fine liquid crystal (LC) alignment pattern is proposed: we term this the “microrubbing process”. An alignment film (polyimide) is rubbed using a metal ball and the thicknesses of rubbed lines are controlled by the normal load. It is described that the maximum line thickness is restricted by the ball diameter and thickness of the alignment film. An LC grating with homogenous and twisted-nematic orientation domains is proposed and is successfully fabricated using the microrubbing process. Polarization-independent diffraction efficiency is confirmed in the low applied-voltage region below the threshold voltage of the electro-optical effect and the high applied-voltage region above 2 V. The diffraction efficiency almost reaches the theoretically maximum value at an optimum applied voltage and is electrically controllable while maintaining polarization-independent diffraction properties.

URL: http://jjap.jsap.jp/link?JJAP/42/6992/
DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.42.6992

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