  It is well known that today two main and well studied methods for alignment
of liquid crystals has been used, namely: rubbing and photoalignment
technologies, that lead to the change of anisotropic properties of aligning
layers and long-range interaction of the liquid crystal molecules in a
mesophase. In this manuscript, we propose the usage of the nonlinear laser
lithography technique, which was recently presented as a fast, relatively
low-cost method for a large area micro- and nanogrooves fabrication based on
laser-induced periodic surface structuring, as a new perspective method of the
alignment of nematic liquid crystals. 920 nm periodic grooves were formed on a
Ti layer processed by means of the nonlinear laser lithography and studied as
an aligning layer. Aligning properties of the periodic structures of Ti layers
were examined by using a combined twist LC cell. In addition, the layer of the
microstructured Ti was coated with an oxidianiline-polyimide film with
annealing of the polymer film followed without any further processing. The
dependence of the twist angle of LC cells on a scanning speed and power of
laser beam during processing of the Ti layer was studied. The azimuthal
anchoring energy of Ti layers with a periodic microstructure was calculated.
The maximum azimuthal anchoring energy for the microstructured Ti layer was
about 4.6*10-6 J/m2, which is comparable to the photoalignment technology. It
was found that after the deposition of a polyimide film on the periodic
microstructured Ti layer, the gain effect of the azimuthal anchoring energy to
~ 1*10-4 J/m2 is observed. Also, AFM study of aligning surfaces was carried
out.
