Defects Connected to the Chevron Texture of a Chiral Smectic C, in a Wedge-Shaped Confined Geometry

Abstract

Chiral smectics C have given rise to a very large literature, partly because Surface Stabilized Ferrolectric Liquid Crystal (S.S.F.L.C) makes possible displays with very interesting features, and also because the physical properties of this phase are of endless variety. Especially the textures in confined geometry, observed by microscopy, connected to the effect of the interaction with the polarized light, have been largely described and interpreted. However, these studies have been made very often in thin cells, sometimes in thick ones, but never in a cell with variable thickness. In this paper we describe and try to interpret the textures and defects created by a planar anchoring in a wedge-shaped sample, which go with the well known chevron texture.