Fabrication of Lyotropic Alignment Layers for Thermotropic Liquid Crystals Facilitated by a Polymer Template

Abstract Uniformly aligned layers made of disodium cromoglycate (DSCG) or double‐stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are fabricated. For this purpose, a thin liquid layer of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal made of DSCG and water or an aqueous solution of DNA is sandwiched between a silica substrate and an anisotropic polyethylene terephthalate film. Removal of the polymer film and subsequent drying yields a highly birefringent solid layer made of DSCG or DNA, respectively. Substrates with these well‐aligned layers can in turn be used to manufacture uniformly aligned samples of a thermotropic liquid crystal. The quality of the alignment is tested by measuring the order parameter of a dye‐doped nematic liquid crystal.