Increasing Rewriting Speed of Optical Rewritable E-paper by Process Optimization

Process optimization for increasing the response speed of liquid crystal (LC) optical rewritable e-paper was investigated. It is demonstrated that by filling LC in atmosphere condition rewriting time could be decreased to 6 s with good repeatability. Increasing the spin coating speed and time could also decrease the azimuthal anchoring energy, but it will cause non-continuous film form of alignment layer which causes large speed dispersion that is not good for practical use. Serial experiments show that with smaller azimuthal anchoring energy the rewriting time could be smaller. The results demonstrate that with proper fabrication process of alignment layer for liquid crystal optical rewritable e-paper, azimuthal anchoring energy could be adjusted to an optimal value which is beneficial for achieving fastest rewriting speed and at the same time strong enough to well align LC.