In-Plane Switching Mode for Liquid Crystal Displays Using a DNA Alignment Layer

Abstract

We successfully fabricated the in-plane switching mode (IPS) LC display (LCD) based on a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) alignment layer. As widely known, the DNA has the right-handed double helical structure that has naturally grown grooves with a very regular period, which can be used as an alignment layer to control the orientation of liquid crystal (LC) molecules. The LC molecules on this topographical layer of DNA material align obliquely at a specific angle with respect to the direction of DNA chains, providing an instant and convenient tool for the fabrication of the IPS display compared to the conventional ways such as rubbing and mechanical shearing methods. The electro-optical performance and response time of this device were also investigated. Our result will be of great use in further exploration of the electro-optical properties of the other biomaterials.

Highly Aligned Plasmonic Gold Nanorods in a DNA Matrix

“…[18][19][20] However, the ability to precisely organize GNRs in desired way remains limited. [38][39][40] The resultant film of the LLC phase shows the highly oriented domain (Figure 1d-h). During this process, self-assembly of molecules at the air-liquid-solid interface, shear force, and DNA elasticity compete to form the highly ordered LLC or crystal phase during water evaporation.…”

“…Simple mechanical shearing results in long-range DNA-gold nanorod arrays which show parallel, perpendicular, and zigzag configurations due to the competition between the shear force and DNA elasticity. Compared with other LLC, the orientation of DNA is easily controlled by applying simple mechanical shearing [38][39][40] (Table S1, Supporting Information). This simple way to form anisotropic plasmonic films can be used for plasmonic nanoparticles in potential applications such as displays and sensors.…”

“…LLC is found in condensed biomaterials such as DNA, [27,28] food dyes, [29] cellulose, [30,31] collagen, [32,33] and bacteriophage, [34,35] which are abundantly produced every year. Compared with other LLC, the orientation of DNA is easily controlled by applying simple mechanical shearing [38][39][40] (Table S1, Supporting Information). Particularly, DNA can be used as a building block to make small structures since DNA has the specific sequences that can be spontaneously assembled together to make the programmable structure such as origami.…”

“…[36,37] Here, we fabricate well-oriented GNRs in DNA medium. Compared with other LLC, the orientation of DNA is easily controlled by applying simple mechanical shearing [38][39][40] (Table S1, Supporting Information). Thus, the DNA was selected as the medium to orient GNRs.…”

Twisted-nematic-mode liquid crystal display with a DNA alignment layer

“…To fabricate this device, a simple 2 Y.J. Cha et al brushing method was developed that allowed us to achieve highly aligned DNA films over a large area [26]. This method has several advantages over the conventional alignment processes because it is a one-step process that is performed in only a few minutes and can be implemented at room temperature [27].…”