| 摘要 |
PURPOSE: To induce the molecular alignment of a liquid crystal medium by exposing anisotropically absorbing molecules in a substrate(s) in a liquid crystal medium that contains a liquid crystal having a molecular weight of <1,500 or adjacent to the medium, with light of about 150 to 2,000nm wavelengths. CONSTITUTION: This method is used for aligning anisotropic molecules in a liquid crystal medium that contains a liquid crystal and has surfaces each adjacent to a substrate, wherein each of the liquid crystal molecules has a molecular weight of about <1,500 or preferably <1,000 and is a molecule having an anisotropic shape such as rodlike shape. The term 'anisotropically absorbing molecule' refers to the molecule of a compound which shows various light absorptivity values at the time of measuring its light absorptivitiy in various directional axes. When anisotropically absorbing molecules in a substrate(s) in the medium or adjacent to the medium are exposed with linearly polarized light of wavelengths corresponding to the absorption bands of each of the absorbing molecules, the molecular alignment of the liquid crystal medium at an angle of +θor -θin the direction of linearly polarized light of the incident light beam is induced by this light exposure of the absorbing molecules. In this case, light of wavelengths within the range of 150 to 2,000nm is preferably used. |
