Nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (NP-AAO) alignment layer on PET/ITO substrate for flexible liquid crystal display application

This study presents a simple process to implement inorganic nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (named np-AAO) on PET/ITO substrate for flexible liquid crystal display (flexible-LCD) application. This is the first time to demonstrate micromachined inorganic np-AAO on PET/ITO substrate as reservoir and alignment layer for liquid crystal (LC). The np-AAO offers three advantages for flexible-LCD, (1) the np-AAO with nanopores array acting as vertical alignment layer to easily and uniformly align liquid crystal (LC) molecules, (2) the np-AAO with vertically nanopores ensure the thickness uniformity of LC layers between PET/ITO substrates for flexible-LCD; and (3) the np-AAO film has outstanding material properties such as, inorganic, tunable transparent, and colorless, for flexible-LCD.