Rigid-flex stamped indium tin oxide film for convertible self-alignment

•A one-dimensional nanopattern was transferred onto the sol–gel film through the soft-imprint technique.•Unlike conventional alignment films, the alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules can be converted by controlling the ratio of InO to SnO.•In addition, the low permeability and weak anchoring energy of InO and the resulting low orientation stability were improved through SnO doping.•The improved anchoring energy reaches a level similar to that of rubbed PI, and is expected to develop into a liquid crystal alignment system. The alignment layer process, which is a key element for liquid crystal (LC) displays, was investigated for efficiency improvement and for suggesting a new mode. To produce alignment films that can be used in both twisted-nematic (TN) and vertical alignment (VA) configurations, InO solution is doped with SnO. Then, the pattern was transferred by attaching a one-dimensional soft-imprint mold, and pattern and orientation analyses were performed in accordance with the SnO ratio. The horizontal orientation performance improved as the SnO ratio increased, and the best orientation performance was observed for a film doped with 70% SnO. Further, the thermal stability improved and anchoring energy increased, which was measured to be very close to that of the rubbed polyimide film. The low transmittance of InO was overcome by doping with SnO, which has high transmittance. In the film doped with 80% SnO, the LC molecules were aligned in a vertical direction and were suitable for VA mode operation. By simple adjustment of the doping ratio, differences are observed with respect to the existing films in that the performance of the alignment layer is improved and the pretilt angles of the LC molecules can be changed. These convertible characteristics are expected to play a revolutionary role in the development of new LC driving modes.