Patent ID: 7777850

Claim:
A method for generating an alignment direction on an aligning substrate for liquid crystal cells, comprising the steps of: directing a plasma beam from a closed drift thruster at least one area of an aligning substrate at an incident angle of greater than 0°, wherein 0° is normal to the substrate, to about 85° at a current density and ion energy for a predetermined amount of time to induce a surface anisotropy and an alignment direction on the area of the aligning substrate bombarded by the plasma beam and provide a mode of alignment for liquid crystals, wherein an azimuth angle has a reference axis that is a projection of the plasma beam on the aligning substrate in the first bombarding step and a zenithal angle is an angle between the alignment direction and the alignment substrate, wherein i) the plasma beam bombarded portion of the aligning substrate imparts to a liquid crystal the alignment direction having an azimuth angle φ of 70° to 110° and a zenithal angle θ of about 0°; or ii) the plasma beam bombardment includes a second bombarding step and after the first bombarding step, wherein the substrate or plasma source is rotated so that in the second bombarding step, the direction of plasma irradiation is perpendicular to the irradiation of the first bombarding step, wherein the bombarded portion of the alignment substrate imparts to a liquid crystal the alignment direction having an azimuth angle φ of 90° and a zenithal angle θ of 0° to 5°.