Precise local control of liquid crystal pretilt on polymer layers by focused ion beam nanopatterning

• Maxim V. Gorkunov,
• Irina V. Kasyanova,
• Vladimir V. Artemov,
• Alena V. Mamonova and
• Serguei P. Palto

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1691–1697, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.164

• : The possibility of nanofabrication of polymer substrates supporting an arbitrary (from planar to vertical) spatially inhomogeneous liquid crystal alignment opens up prospects of “imprinting” electrically tunable versatile metasurfaces constituting lenses, prisms and q-plates. Keywords: focused ion

• beam nanopatterning; nematic liquid crystal; optical retardation; pretilt control; surface anchoring; Introduction Liquid crystal (LC) interactions with adjacent interfaces play a key role in LC-based optical devices as they are responsible for stabilizing mono-domain LC configurations and ensuring