Polymer coated long duration optical memory device and a method for the development thereof

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for the preparation of a polymer coated long duration optical memory device having applications in ferroelectric liquid crystal materials, the said method comprising the steps of forming patterns of different shapes and configurations on a glass substrate coated with indium tin oxide by lithographic methods to obtain an effective electrode area of at least 5 mm ; depositing an antireflection coating on external surfaces of glass substrates followed by coating the patterned glass substrate with a polymer selected from the polyamide group of nylon 6/6 and nylon 6/9 in the thickness range of 900 Å-1100 Å; baking the coated substrate followed by hard rubbing of the polymer coated surface; coating one of the substrates with a spacer selected from photoresist having thickness in the range of 1 &mgr;m to 3 &mgr;m; inserting a ferroelectric liquid crystal material in the space between the coated glass substrates, followed by sealing the sandwiched glass substrates at the periphery; heating and cooling the sandwiched glass substrates; fixing a polariser and an analyser on non conducting surface of each of the respective glass plates, followed by application of electric field across the sandwiched substrates for achieving the stable memory action, by applying an AC and DC field across the device to obtain an optical memory device having a long duration of memory at least one year.