Issue 9, 2024

Sublimation of isolated toric focal conic domains on micro-patterned surfaces

Abstract

Toric focal conic domains (TFCDs) in smectic liquid crystals exhibit distinct topological characteristics, featuring torus-shaped molecular alignment patterns with rotational symmetry around a central core. TFCDs have attracted much interest due to their unique topological structures and properties, enabling not only fundamental studies but also potential applications in liquid crystal (LC)-based devices. Here, we investigated the precise spatial control of the arrangement of TFCDs using micropatterns and sublimation of TFCDs to estimate the energy states of the torus-like structures. Through simulations, we observed that the arrangement of TFCDs strongly depends on the shape of the topographies of underlying substrates. To accurately estimate the energetic effects of non-zero eccentricity and evaluate their thermodynamic stability, we propose a geometric model. Our findings provide valuable insights into the behavior of smectic LCs, offering opportunities for developing novel LC-based devices with precise control over their topological properties.

Graphical abstract: Sublimation of isolated toric focal conic domains on micro-patterned surfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Dec 2023
Accepted
29 Jan 2024
First published
30 Jan 2024

Soft Matter, 2024,20, 2040-2051

Sublimation of isolated toric focal conic domains on micro-patterned surfaces

W. Kim, E. Vitral, P. H. Leo, J. Viñals, D. S. Kim and D. K. Yoon, Soft Matter, 2024, 20, 2040 DOI: 10.1039/D3SM01678A

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