Thickness of crystalline layer induced by annealing after rubbing at surface of polyimide film for liquid crystal displays was estimated to be 3--5 nm by grazing-incidence X-ray diffractions with multi incident angles. Agreement of thickness of crystalline layer with that of initially oriented layer suggests polymer orientation induced by rubbing proceeds crystallization by annealing. Furthermore, no in-plane smectic ordering in bottom 20,nm region of polyimide film was suggested.

Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction experiment proved that the a- and c-axes of PMDA-ODA crystals preferentially aligned in normal and parallel directions to rubbing at surface of rubbed film, and that polymer chains of residual amorphous phase aligned in rubbing direction.

We developed a new method for characterizing molecular distribution in very thin liquid crystal layer (5-40 nm) evaporated onto rubbed polyimide film used by grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD). The diffraction peaks corresponding to intermolecular correlation perpendicular to longitudinal axis of liquid crystal molecule and the clear anisotropic distribution of liquid crystal molecules in a thin layer were successfully observed. We found that in the vicinity of the alignment film, the intermolecular spacing correlation perpendicular to longitudinal axis of the 5CB molecule was expanded by the alignment film, and that the ordering of the 5CB was not so high. As the distance from the alignment film the spacing came close to the intrinsic intermolecular spacing.

We investigated effect of annealing after rubbing by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, since annealing process is performed in the actual process of liquid crystal display (LCD) fabrication. It was found that rubbed surface polymers were highly crystallized by annealing at 250 after rubbing, and that the crystallization of surface polymers by annealing occurred in the aligned polymer region induced by rubbing. Crystallization of surface polymers by annealing increasingly occurred as increasing of rubbing strength. Thus, it is considered that annealing process after rubbing should also play an important role to control liquid crystal alignment in LCD.

Rubbed polyimide films have been widely used as liquid crystal alignment films for liquid crystal displays. Washing after rubbing is essential to fabricate liquid crystal displays, and should affect alignment of liquid crystal as well as rubbing. We investigated the effects of rubbing condition and soaking in acetone on polyimide films by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction. It was found that soaking in acetone promoted crystallization of surface aligned polymers, and that the crystallization by acetone was dependent on the initial polymer alignment. The larger initial crystalline phase was, the more newly crystallization occurred by soaking. It was also revealed that the crystallization by soaking in acetone was completed within 1 min.

We report effects of washing rubbed polyimide film on the near surface. Especially we focused dependence of solvent. Rubbed polyimide films have been used as liquid crystal alignment films in Liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and in actual LCD panel fabrication washing on film surfaces after rubbing is essential process to remove dust and pollution. We investigated the effects of washing by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) measurements. In GIXD, the X-ray penetration into the polymer was changed from 8 nm (suface sensitive) to 4 nm (bulk sensitive) by variation of the X-ray incidence angle. It was found that crystallization near the surface induced by soaking was considerably dependent on solvent. However, in-plane distribution of the surface polymer chains of polyimide film was not found to be dependent on the solvents.

Rubbed polyimide films have been widely used as liquid crystal alignment films for liquid crystal displays (LCDs). We investigated the effect of rubbing on the surface molecules of polyimide films by using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) and reflection ellipsometry. We found that rubbing not only caused the polymer chains to align in the direction of rubbing but also to elongate near the film surface. However, the in-plane distribution of surface polymer chains of polyimide film was not found to be dependent on the rubbing conditions.