Abstract
Droplets in smectic free-standing films interact due to elastic distortion of the c-director field and formation of topological defects. Our experiments show that chirality of the liquid-crystal medium plays a key role in the interaction between droplets. We find that the configuration of the c-director field near the droplets and the position of the topological defects on the droplet boundary depend on droplet size and film polarity. An intermediate c-director configuration between dipolar and quadrupolar is formed near droplets in smectic films due to the competition between elasticity and chirality. We observed that the distance between droplets in self-organized structures depends on the position of defects on the droplet boundary and significantly changes with respect to that for dipolar droplets. Our results open the way to modify the droplet interaction and the structures formed by droplets.
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