Effect of the dielectric layer with photo-controllable surface relief on liquid crystal devices

We present experimental results for the dielectric layer effect on the electro-optical properties of liquid crystal (LC) devices together with numerical simulations. The photo-controllable polymer is used as a dielectric material on which the alignment agent of the LC is prepared. The surface relief structure can be induced on the dielectric polymer layer by photo-irradiation for fabricating LC microlens arrays or wide-viewing LC displays. It is found that the operation voltage of the LC device decreases with increasing the dielectric constant or with decreasing the layer thickness of the polymer. The experimental data agree well with theoretical results predicted from a simple dielectric model in the continuum theory.