Park C S, Furtak T E, Clark N A, Liberko C A, Walba D M
Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2003 May;67(5 Pt 1):051707. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.67.051707. Epub 2003 May 27.
We have designed self-assembled monolayers of molecules containing a ferroelectric liquid crystal mesogen attached to a glass surface through an alkane chain. After mechanical rubbing these layers induce a single domain in a cell containing a high-polarization achiral liquid crystal in the smectic-C phase. We have used optical second-harmonic generation to demonstrate that this behavior is explained by rubbing-induced in-plane anisotropy of the angular distribution function that describes the ensemble of mesogenic units. The surface order parameter is 0.094, a substantial fraction of what has been observed for rubbed polymeric alignment layers.
