Liquid crystal alignment on the multiply photo-treated layers by the interfered laser light

Orientational alignment patterns proved that they are very useful for realizing diverse properties of liquid crystals. Here we tried to produce the patterns combining interfered laser light and double irradiations. A photo-isomerizable polymer doped with azo dye, which induce uniform liquid crystal alignment to the uniform laser irradiation, was used as the alignment layer. Double irradiations into two orthogonal directions brought the orientation patterns similar to the checkerboard. It indicates the possibility of bistability on those patterns.