Photo-Induced Orientation of Nematic Liquid Crystals in Microcapillaries

Axial and transversal orientational configurations of a nematic liquid crystal 6CHBT are realized inside glassy cylindrical capillaries by using photoalignment technique. It is demonstrated that this principle can be effectively used to enforce liquid crystal alignment in the desirable direction. It can be applied to control liquid crystal alignment in the photonic crystal fibers showing great potential for the modern telecommunication technologies.