Suppressing Optical Bounce for Homeotropic Liquid Crystal Cells by Rubbing Treatment

In this article, we propose a mechanical rubbing method to eliminate the optical bounce and decrease the response time of homeotropic liquid crystal cells. After gently rubbing the inorganic alignment film (sputtered silicon oxide, SiO2), the decreasing polar anchoring energy results in a smaller pretilt angle giving liquid crystal a toppling direction to shorten the transition time while liquid crystal cell is applied by an external electric field. The results of our work show that this rubbing remedy suppresses the optical bounce. This simple and efficient surface rubbing treatment could be applied to liquid crystal on silicon technique for projectors and portable displays.