Strontium oxide (SrO) films were fabricated via solution processing and used as a liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer. The effect of the molar concentration of Sr on the properties of these films was analyzed. Some treatment on the alignment surface is generally required to align LC molecules. However, LC molecules aligned spontaneously on SrO films that were fabricated using our solution process; this alignment occurred along the direction of LC injection. Uniform LC alignment was achieved on SrO films with Sr molar concentrations between 0.1 and 0.3 mol; however, randomly aligned LCs were observed at 0.4 mol Sr. In addition, LC cells with excellent electro-optical characteristics were obtained. The threshold voltages and response times of LC cells fabricated by SrO films decreased as the molar concentration of the Sr component increased. We were able to obtain values that are competitive with those demonstrated by conventional rubbed LC cells.Graphical Abstract It is important to investigate the alignment property and electro-optical property for realization of a suitable LC application. Graphical abstract exhibits the alignment property (upper POM image) and electro-optical property (applied voltage-transmittance graph) of LC cell fabricated by SrO films. LC cell with 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 M shows uniform alignment state. Moreover, voltage-transmittance of LC cells based on SrO film was measured and compared to that of rubbed PI. The results show the possibility of advanced LC applications.

Sulfur-deficient iron sulfide, Fe, 04S, has been studied in comparison with FeS by Mossbauer spectroscopy at various temperatures ranging from 82 to 600 K. It is found that the 4 at. % sulfur vacancy makes the crystallographic a transition from the (NiAs, MnP) structure to a superstructure take place abruptly within 5 K with the superstructure stable up to 410 K. The spin-rotation transition of Fe&~S takes place at 455 K, which is higher by 63 K than that of FeS. The Neel temperature is not affected appreciably by the sulfur vacancy concentration.

We demonstrate homogeneous and uniform liquid crystal (LC) alignment on poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [PVDF-TrFE] films using ion-beam (IB) irradiation and a performance improvement of twisted nematic (TN) cells using IB-irradiated PVDF-TrFE films. Spontaneous ferroelectricity of the PVDF-TrFE films was modified by IB irradiation, which affected the LC alignment properties. The variation in the pre-tilt angles of the LC molecules on the IB-irradiated PVDF films is attributed to surface reformation, including defluorination and oxidation because the pre-tilt angles of LC molecules can be controlled by adjusting the fluorine content. The results of contact angle measurements supported this phenomenon. A 58% reduction in the switching voltage was observed for TN cells, indicating that the IB-irradiated PVDF-TrFE films are a promising candidate for use as an alignment layer.

In order to control a process that has short production cycle and where the product type and specifications change often with conventional shewhart control charts such as and control charts, a new control chart must be applied every time the parameters change . As this is a very inefficient method in terms of the cost and time, CV control chart using coefficient of variation statistics was developed. As CV control chart reflects only the current sample data on control chart, it can be useful when there is a significant change in process. However, it does not respond sensitively to a process that has subtle change or requires a high control level. CV-EWMA control chart was researched to monitor small shifts in CV. This study proposes a way to improve accuracy and precision of population parameter estimation of conventional CV-EWMA control chart and applied it to a control chart before analyzing its performance. As a result, the accuracy and precision of conventional CV-EWMA control chart has been improved and it was verified that the proposed control chart is a proper control chart to control small shifts of CV.