Alignment Control of Columnar Liquid Crystals for Uniformly Homeotropic Domain with Circularly Polarized Infrared Irradiation

In this study, the alignment change with circularly polarized infrared irradiation for columnar mesophase was investigated for a liquid crystalline triphenylene derivative in order to get uniform domain with homeotropic alignment of columnar liquid crystal. It was found that circularly polarized infrared irradiation provides alignment change to form new domain with uniformly homeotropic (“face-on”) alignment and this phenomena is by way of the excitation of the selected vibrational mode of a chemical bond. The results strongly imply that the infrared irradiation is a possible technique for device fabrication by use of columnar liquid crystalline semiconductors.