Alignment of liquid crystals on ion beam-spurted graphene oxide thin layers

Alignment of liquid crystals (LC) sandwiched between ion beam (IB)-spurted graphene oxide (GO) thin layers is presented in this manuscript. LC alignment is found sensitive to the direction and acceleration energy of spurted IB, and IB accelerated with a 45° incident angle is the most suitable and effective to align LC at the lowest acceleration energy. Generated chemical radicals and the surface topology modification of GO thin layers during IB spurting process are responsible for the alignment of LC, which were also confirmed by the chemical information variation in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectra, modified topology observation in scanning electron microscopy images and atomic force microscopy images, the corresponding surface roughness analysis, and the surface energy analysis of IB-spurted GO thin layers. The increased LC anchoring on GO thin layers generated by spurted IB was also confirmed by the measured anchoring energies. LC sandwiched between IB-spurted GO thin layers also present competitive switching performances.