Large-area ordered arrays created by the self-assembly of linear defects in thin smectic-A films have been investigated by a team of Italian and French scientists. The team led by Bruno Zappone and Emmanuelle Lacaze showed that the smectic layers are bent in concentric cylinders and neighboring cylindrical domains are separated by curvature walls. The team say that the domains are centered on virtual singularities, running below the substrate plane, and rest upon a surface region of submicrometric thickness where layers are flat and vertical.
Read the article for free here: Bruno Zappone, Emmanuelle Lacaze, Habib Hayeb, Michel Goldmann, Nathalie Boudet, Philippe Barois and Michel Alba, Soft Matter, 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0SM00747A (Advance Article)
