A new approach to photoalignment: photo-addition to a self-assembled monolayer

Photoalignment used to control the orientation of nematic liquid crystals in LCDs usually involves the photochemical modification of the chemical structure of an organic thin film so that an optical and/or steric anisotropy is developed. We now demonstrate a novel photoadditive alternative whereby small photoreactive molecules are bound to a photoreactive SAM surface by irradiation with polarised UV so that the surface properties are changed and a surface anisotropy is developed