Abstract
The mechanism of photo-induced liquid crystal (LC) alignment on a poly(vinyl cinnamate) (PVCi) thin layer was studied. By spectral analysis for the polarized UV spectra of the PVCi thin layer exposed to a polarized UV, dichroism of the photo-dimer and photo-isomer could be determined. To elucidate the mechanism of photo-induced LC alignment, changes in the dichroism of the photo-products and photoaligned LC were investigated with two successive irradiations of polarized UV (250-340 nm) with different polarization directions to the PVCi thin layer. The dichroism of the photoaligned LC was found to follow not the dichroism of the photo-isomer but that of the photo-dimer, which indicates that the anisotropic distribution of the photo-dimer is mainly responsible for uniform LC alignment.
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Kim, HT., Lee, JW., Sung, SJ. et al. Mechanism of Photo-Induced Liquid Crystal Alignment on a Poly(vinyl cinnamate) Thin Layer. Polym J 33, 9–12 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.33.9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1295/polymj.33.9