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Abstract
The behavior of freely suspended smectic-C* (SmC*) films at the bulk Smectic-C*- cholesteric (N*) phase transition has been investigated. According to our experimental observations, the heating of the SmC*free-standing film above the bulk SmC*-N* phase transition can give rise to conventional layer thinning transitions or to nucleation of N* droplets trapped inside the film.
The optical texture observations show that a N* droplets confined in the SmC* host phase are accompanied by topological defects. Due to the boundary condition fixed by the anisotropic host phase elastic interactions between droplet-defect pairs appear.
These interactions drive the self-organization of the droplet-defect pairs in chain-like structures. In this paper, we present the experimental conditions acting on the droplet nucleation process and on the droplet chaining.
