Self-assembled monolayers and multilayered stacks of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystalline dyes with in-plane orientational order

A simple method to create large areas of in-plane oriented molecular mono- and multilayers is presented. The method is based on layer-by-layer adsorption of polyions and a lyotropic chromonic (nonamphiphilic) liquid crystal, which allows one to orient the molecules uniformly in the plane of deposition. The long-range in-plane orientation of the chromonic molecules determines the unique structural and optical properties of the films. Control of the orientational order allows one to use the films as polarizers, alignment layers, optical compensators, retarders, filters, etc.