Untwisting of the helical structure of cholesteric droplets with homeotropic surface anchoring

Abstract

Cholesteric droplets dispersed in a polymer with homeotropic surface anchoring are studied. A director configuration with the bipolar distribution of the axis of the helix is formed in droplets. The untwisting of the helical structure (i.e., an increase in the pitch of the helix) is experimentally observed at a decrease in the size of droplets. This dependence is analyzed for liquid crystal droplets with various concentrations of the chiral addition. A proposed empirical relation describes well the correlation of the helix pitch and the size of droplets in the studied samples.