Вестник московского государственного областного университета. Серия: Физика-математика (May 2017)
EFFECT OF GRANULAR SILVER FILMS MORPHOLOGY ON THE MOLECULES ORIENTATION AND ION CONTAMINATION OF NEMATIC LIQUID CRYSTAL
Abstract
The structure of granular silver films at the interface of liquid crystal (LC) cells and their influence on LC molecule orientation and ionic contamination are examined. Granular silver films were deposited on a glass substrate covered with an ITO electrode and a-C:H thin films. The morphology structure of the silver films was changed after their annealing at 200 °C. The silver granules became spheroidal with an average diameter of -30 nm and the channel area between them increased. The change in the structure of the Ag films led to an increase in the phase retardation and a decrease in the pretilt angle of the LC director from 51° to 7°. The density of ionic impurities in the LC cell with the annealed silver film was three times more than in the LC cell with the unannealed film. The impact of the alignment of the LC molecules at the surface of the granular silver films on the intensity of the plasmonic peak and its red shift in the absorption spectra is shown.
