Claims
- 1. A process for preparing an optical alignment layer for aligning liquid crystals comprising:preparing a layer of polymer selected from the group consisting of polyamic acid, polyamide ester and polyimide, comprising anisotropically absorbing molecules, on a substrate, exposing said layer to polarized light; the polarized light having a wavelength within the absorption band of said anisotropically absorbing molecules; wherein the resulting exposed anisotropically absorbing molecules induce alignment of a liquid crystal medium at an angle with respect to the major axis of the polarization of the incident light and along the surface of the optical alignment layer; wherein the polymer is further characterized in having side chains selected from the group consisting of C3-C22 linear and branched hydrocarbon and partially fluorinated hydrocarbon chains, optionally substituted by one to two heteroatoms selected from the group consisting of N, S, O and having one to four carbon-carbon double bonds.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a Continuation-in-Part of application U.S. Ser. No. 09/221,295, filed on Dec. 23, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,322.
Government Interests
This invention was made with United States Government support under Agreement No. MDA972-93-2-0014 awarded by ARPA. The United States Government has certain rights in the invention.
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Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/221295 |
Dec 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/544684 |
|
US |