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The alignment properties of a nematic liquid crystal in contact with a micropatterned polyimide surface were theoretically analyzed and experimentally investigated. The patterns with a period of 1 µm were formed by stripes of alternating planar and homeotropic anchorings. The theoretical and experimental results implied that domains with the opposite tilt angle of liquid crystal directors were formed inside the cell. The average tilt angle was nearly 45° in the two alignment states and slightly varied from this equilibrium value depending on the treatment method, cell configuration and liquid crystal.

We have recently reported on a method that utilizes a slit coater as a novel liquid crystal alignment technique. We carried out this study under two ultraviolet (UV) irradiation conditions, viz., (i) UV irradiation from the side of a glass substrate (exposure type 1) and (ii) UV irradiation from the side of the air–liquid crystal interface (exposure type 2), and investigated the electro-optical characteristics and azimuthal anchoring energy of liquid crystal sample cells performed under these two UV irradiation conditions.