Lithographic Alignment of Discotic Liquid Crystals: A New Time-Temperature Integrating Framework

Liquid crystals are a successful example of how the control of self-assembly via chemical design leads to novel applications. Direct patterning of a continuous metal-free mesogenic phthalocyanine film (discotick liquid crystals) is shown by the spatial control of columns orientation by unconventional lithography. These patterned films work as time-temperature integrators at a columnar rectangular-hexagonal transition temperature.