Investigation of ion‐beam‐treated SiO x film surfaces for liquid crystal alignment

We investigated the liquid crystal (LC) alignment on SiO x film surfaces as a function of ion beam exposure time using scanning probe microscopy and X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy. It was concluded that the LC alignment with high or low pretilt angles did not contribute to the morphological roughness but depended on the roughness in the electric potential of the SiO x surfaces. We also found that SiO x films with vertical LC alignment show relatively low values of stoichiometry parameters (1.42