ABSTRACT
The confinement of liquid crystals inside curved geometries leads to exotic structures, with applications ranging from biosensors to optical switches and privacy windows. Here we study how curvature affects the alignment of a cholesteric liquid crystal. We model the system on the mesoscale using the Landau-de Gennes model. Our study was performed in three stages, analyzing different curved geometries from cylindrical walls and pores, to toroidal domains, in order to isolate the curvature effects. Our results show that the stresses introduced by the curvature influence the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules, and cause distortions in the natural periodicity of the cholesteric that depend on the radius of curvature, on the pitch, and on the dimensions of the system. In particular, the cholesteric layers of toroidal droplets exhibit a symmetry breaking not seen in cylindrical pores and that is driven by the additional curvature.
ABSTRACT
We investigate theoretically the wetting properties of cholesteric liquid crystals at a planar substrate. If the properties of substrate and of the interface are such that the cholesteric layers are not distorted, the wetting properties are similar to those of a nematic liquid crystal. If, on the other hand, the anchoring conditions force the distortion of the liquid crystal layers the wetting properties are altered, the free cholesteric-isotropic interface is non-planar and there is a layer of topological defects close to the substrate. These deformations can either promote or hinder the wetting of the substrate by a cholesteric, depending on the properties of the cholesteric liquid crystal.
