Arch-texture in cholesteric liquid crystals

Abstract

We have observed an arch-texture in cholesteric liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates making a small wedge angle. The anchoring is homeotropic on one plate and planar on the opposite one. This texture is locally periodic and composed of parallel stripes whose average direction rotates by 180° each time the sample thickness increases by p/2, where p is the equilibrium pitch of the cholesteric phase. This texture is due to a periodic modulation of the elastic boundary layer which forms near the plate treated for homeotropic anchoring.