Issue 20, 2023

Energetics of topographically designed Smectic-A oily streaks

Abstract

A thin Smectic-A liquid crystal (LC) film is deposited on a polymer vinyl alcohol-coated substrate that had been scribed with a uniform easy axis pattern over a square of side length L ≤ 85 μm. The small size of the patterned region facilitates material distribution to form either a hill (for a thin film) or divot (for a thick film) above the scribed square and having an oily streak (OS) texture. Optical profilometry measurements vs. film thickness suggest that the OS structure aims to adopt a preferred thickness z0 that depends on the nature of the molecule, the temperature, and the surface tension at the air interface. We present a phenomenological model that estimates the energy cost of the OS layer as its thickness deviates from z0.

Graphical abstract: Energetics of topographically designed Smectic-A oily streaks

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Mar 2023
Accepted
09 May 2023
First published
16 May 2023

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 3733-3738

Author version available

Energetics of topographically designed Smectic-A oily streaks

A. Missaoui, A. L. Susser, H. Aharoni and C. Rosenblatt, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 3733 DOI: 10.1039/D3SM00306J

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