Ultrafast laser induced nanostructured ITO for liquid crystal alignment and higher transparency electrodes

Femtosecond laser nanostructured indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass is shown to act both as a liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer and as an electrode with higher transparency. The nanopatterns of the 120 nm period were created using ultrashort laser pulses directly on ITO films without any addition...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Solodar, A., Cerkauskaite, A., Drevinskas, R., Kazansky, P. G., Abdulhalim, Ibrahim
Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88512
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47612
Description
Summary:Femtosecond laser nanostructured indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass is shown to act both as a liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer and as an electrode with higher transparency. The nanopatterns of the 120 nm period were created using ultrashort laser pulses directly on ITO films without any additional spin coating materials or lithography process. Nine regions of laser-induced nanostructures were fabricated with different alignment orientations and various pulse energy levels on top of the ITO confirming the follow-up of the LC director to the line orientation. The device interfacial anchoring energy was found to be ∼1μ J/m2, comparable to the anchoring energy of nematic LC on photosensitive polymers. The transparency as an electrode was found to improve due to the better antireflection and lower absorption expected from a nanostructured surface.