Nematic Liquid Crystal on a Two Dimensional Hexagonal Lattice and its Application.
We have studied the alignment of liquid crystal adsorbed onto graphene and hexagonal boron nitride by using a polarized optical microscope. From the experimental data, it was found that there were 6 different alignment orientations of the liquid crystal molecules on a single crystal substrate. This result has never been reported and is quite different from other previous results. As the hexagonal lattice has a threefold rotational symmetry, three different alignment orientations were expected, but our result seems counter-intuitive. We explain this result considering the bending of the tail of the liquid crystal molecules. Using this anchoring effect with six accurate discrete angles, a novel non-volatile display can be developed with micron-scale pixel size, due to the molecular level accuracy of the alignment.
Faculty of Nanotechnology &Advanced Materials, HMC, and GRI, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
Muhammad
M
Arslan Shehzad
Faculty of Nanotechnology &Advanced Materials, HMC, and GRI, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
Dung
D
Hoang Tien
Department of Physics and Graphene Research Institute, Sejong University, Seoul, Korea.
M
M
Waqas Iqbal
Department of Physics and Graphene Research Institute, Sejong University, Seoul, Korea.
Jonghwa
J
Eom
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, South Korea.
J H
JH
Park
Center for Nanometrology, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Yusong PO Box 102, Daejeon 305-600, Korea.
Chanyong
C
Hwang
Faculty of Nanotechnology &Advanced Materials, HMC, and GRI, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
Yongho
Y
Seo