Atomic beam alignment of liquid crystals

We have found that liquid crystals can be aligned on a polyimide surface exposed to a low energy and neutral argon ion beam. The energy of the incident ions was varied between 75 eV and 500 eV, the integrated current density from 20 mu A/cm(2) to 500 mu Al/cm(2), and the angle of incidence over which alignment was measured war between 10 degrees and 80 degrees. The pretilt angle of the liquid crystals could be varied between 0 degrees and 10 degrees, by controlling the processing conditions.