substrates holding the substrates against the spacers in another implementation shown in fig1 b one may use a collimated uv beam for oblique illumination of the cell during the polymerization phase separation process then the polymer columns 24 will be formed obliquely which will in turn align the liquid crystal molecules in an oblique orientation application of an electric field will reorient the molecules to a planar or homeotropic orientation depending on whether the liquid crystal has negative or positive dielectric anisotropy 0039 fig2 a shows a scanning electron microscope sem image of the polymer columns noa65 mj mixture after the liquid crystal has been washed away with hexane fig2 b shows a tilted and magnified view of one of caps and one of the columns partially visible below the cap 0040 fig3 a shows the microscopic texture of a 3 micron thick glass cell using a 1 1 noa68 mj mixture 50 by weight of each material under crossed polarizers the polymer columns appear dark under crossed polarizers and liquid crystal defect lines interconnect them 0041 fig3 b is the conoscopic image of the same cell a dark cross at the center of the field of view which is unaffected by rotation of the cell about its surface normal ensures the vertical alignment of the liquid crystal director 0042 fig3 c shows the microscopic texture of the same cell after a square wave electric field of amplitude 4 v at 1 khz is applied across the cell as the polymer columns extend vertically with no pretilt the electric field reorients the liquid crystal director in the plane of the substrates with no preferential azimuthal orientation as indicated by the schlieren 0043 fig3 d shows a prototype.