Thermal and storage degradation of SiOx orienting films and its influence on NLCs alignment

Abstract

Thermal and degradation stability of SiOx aligning films deposited by reactive cathode sputtering (RCS) in glow discharge plasma has been investigated. It is shown that heat treatment and other external factors initiate transformations on the surface of aligning film and formed new conditions on the interface. It is lead to change of easy axis orientation direction of LC molecules and appearance of various defects in the LC aligned structures. The technological ways for increasing of aligning layers durability under influence of external factors has been proposed.