Compartmentalized liquid crystal alignment induced by sparse polymer ribbons with surface relief gratings.

We report on the liquid crystal (LC) alignment induced by sparse polymer ribbons fabricated by the two-photon polymerization-based direct laser writing method. Each ribbon is fabricated by a single scan of the laser through the photoresist and possesses surface relief gratings on both sides. The relief gratings are caused by the optical interference between the incident and reflected laser beams. With the aid of these relief gratings, LC molecules can be well aligned along the selected direction of the ribbons. LC cells with the Z-shaped and checkerboard-type microstructures are constructed based on the sparse out-of-plane polymeric ribbons. Our results show that with such polymer ribbons a compartmentalized LC alignment in the arbitrary microstructures can be realized.