Inducing tilted perpendicular alignment in liquid crystals

A liquid crystal device prepared by a method for preparing a liquid crystal device having a uniformly tilted perpendicular alignment of liquid crystal on a substrate, the liquid crystal comprised of elongated modules whose combined long molecular axes define a macroscopic director, comprising the steps of:

• supporting the substrate upon a pallet having a defined width;
• moving a substrate past a sputtering target in an RF magnetron sputtering device with the sputtering target composed of silica and arranged to form an elliptical racetrack configuration having a length greater than the width of said pallet so that the sputtering target overhangs the substrate from two opposite ends thereof;
• depositing a layer of silica on the substrate by magnetron in-line sputtering from the non-overhanging portion of said sputtering target;
• traversing the substrate at least once past the target during the deposition until the substrate is covered with a layer of liquid crystal having a thickness of between 250 to about 1500 Angstroms;
• treating the silica-coated substrate with a long chain alcohol;
• and
• covering the alcohol-treated substrate with a layer of liquid crystal, so that the director at all points across the surface of the substrate has an azimuthal direction that is substantially uniform, and such that the projection of the director onto the substrate surface is everywhere approximately parallel.