Ion gun deposition and alignment for liquid-crystal applications

A method of forming an amorphous film on a substrate, wherein said amorphous film exhibits an aligned atomic structure, said method comprising the steps of:

• introducing a carbon-containing gas into a discharge chamber of an ion beam source;
• ionizing said carbon-containing gas in said discharge chamber to produce an ion beam comprising ions;
• applying sufficient voltage to said ion beam to accelerate said ions out of said ion beam source;
• and
• bombarding said substrate with at least one ion beam from at least one ion beam source at a designated incident angle to simultaneously (a) deposit said amorphous film onto said substrate, and (b) arrange said atomic structure of said amorphous film in at least one predetermined aligned direction, wherein said ion beam has an energy from about 100 to 300 eV and said designated incident angle is from about 25 to about 60 degrees and wherein said amorphous film is a diamond-like carbon film.