A plasma ion immersion treatment has been developed to enhance the liquid crystal (LC) alignment on the hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) layer in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) chamber. No LC alignment was observed for the a-C:H layer tilted at an angle of 0 degrees during the bombardment with plasma ions. The LC alignment occurs for the a-C:H layer tilted at an angle of 30 degrees or 60 degrees. Their pretilt angles (similar to 1.4 degrees) are approximately the same. The azimuthal anchoring strength is 1.98 x 10(-6) J/m(2) at a tilted angle of 30 degrees and 1.14 x 10(-4) J/m(2) at a tilted angle of 60 degrees. The mechanism for the LC alignment is attributed to the oblique incidence of ions within the matrix sheath of non-uniform thickness near the a-C: H surface under a negative pulse bias. The matrix sheath of non-uniform thickness is confirmed by the plasma density distribution in the ICP chamber and the X-ray photoemission spectra across the a-C:H layer. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.