Energetics of topographically designed Smectic-A oily streaks

Abstract

A thin Smectic-A liquid crystal (LC) film is deposited on a polymer vinyl alcohol-coated substrate that had been scribed with a uniform easy axis pattern over a square of side length L ≤ 85 μm. The small size of the patterned region facilitates material distribution to form either a hill (for a thin film) or divot (for a thick film) above the scribed square and having an oily streak (OS) texture. Optical profilometry measurements vs. film thickness suggest that the OS structure aims to adopt a preferred thickness z₀ that depends on the nature of the molecule, the temperature, and the surface tension at the air interface. We present a phenomenological model that estimates the energy cost of the OS layer as its thickness deviates from z₀.