Controlled formation of topological defects of liquid crystals in micro-wells

ABSTRACT

Topological defects in liquid crystals (LCs) have drawn attention because they frequently control their collective structure and motion. We have developed a robust and straightforward methodology to prepare well-organised isolated topological defects using the fabrication of micro-well structures. We could prepare multiple topological surface defects in each micro-well with high reproducibility. The micro-wells were prepared by capping a glass substrate on micro-molded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The topological defects were stabilised by optimising the size and the shape and satisfying the boundary conditions inside each micro-well, which was controlled by the air-plasma treatment on the surfaces. We found the optimal conditions for the reproducible and stable formation of topological defects; a circular shape with its diameter <10 μm and the glass surface was treated by air-plasma, providing a proper balance of the elastic force to form topological defect at the centre.

KEYWORDS:

• Liquid crystal
• topological defect
• micro-fabrication
• surface treatment

Disclosure statement

I declare that the authors have no competing interests or other interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported in this article.

Author Contribution Statement

KK designed the experiments, and HSa and SY worked on the experiments and analyzed the data. TM and HSu designed and fabricated the micro-wells. HSa and KK wrote the manuscript, and all the authors reviewed the manuscript.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Additional information

Funding

The research was financially supported by the Institute of Science and Engineering, Chuo University.