Tin dioxide inorganic nanolevel films with different liquid crystal molecular orientations for application in liquid crystal displays (LCDs)

Abstract

We generated SnO2 alignment films with one of two liquid crystal (LC) molecular orientations: a stable, vertical orientation or a homogeneous orientation. We changed the molecular orientations by altering the growth temperature of radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. An ion-beam (IB) advanced system was used to achieve uniform alignment. We obtained two LC molecular orientations as demonstrated by the shift of the Sn 3d peaks and the altered-sub peaks of Sn2+, Sn4+ intensity on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) images of the various films. The electro-optical (EO) characteristics of the TN-LC and VA-LC displays on the high-k SnO2/HfO2 double films were measured; a reduction in threshold voltage, response time, and low power consumption were observed.