New results on liquid crystal alignment by photopolymerization

A review of LC alignment properties on UV-cured photoanisotropic films is given. Special attention is attracted to photopolymers (like PVC), as aligning agents. Such aspects as orientation quality, tilt angle, etc. are taken into account. The new aligning methods seem to be very attractive in LCD technology as they allow the user to avoid electrostatic charges and impurities, which usually exist in conventional rubbing techniques. Such applications of photoanisotropic aligning methods as the improvement of viewing angles of TN LCDs or the restoration of bistability in FLCs are discussed