Study of the interfacial structures and behavior of smectic liquid crystals using synchrotron light source

Grazing Incidence X-ray Scattering with a synchrotron X-ray source is used to study the depth dependence of the interfacial structure of smectic liquid crystal (8CB) hybrid films. The advancement and market potential of liquid crystal technologies lead to inventions of new materials and surface treatments. The knowledge of interfacial structures and behavior is very critical to these thin film devices such as Liquid Crystal Display. Photolithography in a clean room is adopted to make gratings on very thin glass, which offers better quality than conventional methods in terms of uniformity, reproducibility, reliability, and endurance. Liquid crystal thin films are bounded by a grated glass substrate and air, and have been studied as a function of both temperature and thickness.; Experimental measurements indicate the existence of chevron, tilt, and bookshelf structure, as well as Twisted Grain Boundary (TGB) structure that has not previously been observed by X-ray in non-chiral smectic liquid crystals. These structures are a result of liquid crystal anchoring at two dissimilar competing confining surfaces, air-smectics and smectics-grating substrate. With deeper grating, smectic liquid crystals are more constrained in structure and more resilient to temperature change. The smectic phase also persisted at a higher temperature above the smectic-nematic transition point on a deeper grating substrate. When the thickness of liquid crystal samples is beyond a certain point, the smectic liquid crystal begins to form different layers. Chevron structures appear in most situations, which is consistent with previous research A TGB structure is not tamable in a thicker sample where liquid crystals tend to realign themselves in a more stable structure.