Structure and energy of the wall separating two states in surface-stabilized smectic C chevron cells

Abstract

We use a Landau-de Gennes model to study the structure of the wall formed between two oppositely switched areas (pixels) in surface stabilized smectic C cells with uniform chevron direction. We find the width of the wall and calculate the energy associated with its formation. This approach also allows us to determine the effect of the temperature on the pixel wall properties. We predict analytically and calculate numerically that both the wall energy and the wall width obey a power law dependence on temperature with the exponents 3/2 and 1/2, respectively.