Focal conics in a smectic-A liquid crystal in microwrinkle grooves

Abstract

Focal conic domains (FCDs) in smectic-A (SmA) liquid crystals (LCs) are a broad class of curvature defects in a layered system. Here, we report a regular array of FCDs in octylcyanobiphenyl in a SmA phase confined within sinusoidal microgrooves of microwrinkles with a specific periodicity. A semi-hybrid alignment is imposed by the air–LC interface (homeotropic) and the LC–curved-microwrinkle interface (unidirectional planar). The FCDs are periodically packed along the groove direction when the wrinkle wavelength is larger than a critical value of approximately 4 μm. The periodicity of the FCDs monotonically increases with increasing the wrinkle wavelength. From our optical observation, we propose an internal layer structure of the FCDs composed of a set of Dupin cyclides with the eccentricity of the basic ellipse being approximately 0.75.