The assembly of topological defects in liquid crystals has drawn significant interest in the last decade due to their ability to trap colloidal objects and direct their arrangements. They have also brought about a high impact in modern technologies, in particular in optics, e.g., microlens arrays, soft lithography templates, and optically selective masks. Here we study the formation of defects in smectic A liquid crystal with hybrid texture at undulated surfaces. We investigate the role of surface topography on the organization of focal conic domains (FCDs) in smectic films. We demonstrate new methods for assembling FCDs and disclinations into hierarchical structures. When the liquid crystal is heated to the nematic phase, we observe stable defect lines forming at specific locations. These defects are created to satisfy anchoring conditions and the geometry of confinement imposed by the boundaries. Once the liquid crystal is cooled to the smectic A phase, the disclinations maintain their positions, but periodic structures of reversible FCDs facing opposite directions arise between them. We report the correlation between the size of these FCDs and their eccentricities with the morphology of the interface. This work paves the way for creating new procedures to control the assembly of functional nanomaterials into tunable assemblies that may find relevance in the field of energy technology including in optoelectronic and photonic applications.

中文翻译：

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在波状界面处的层列液晶缺陷的分层组装。

在过去的十年中，液晶中拓扑缺陷的组装引起了人们的极大兴趣，因为它们能够捕获胶体并引导其排列。它们还对现代技术产生了巨大影响，特别是在光学领域，例如，微透镜阵列，软光刻模板和光学选择掩模。在这里，我们研究了在起伏表面上具有混合纹理的近晶A液晶中缺陷的形成。我们调查了表面形貌在近晶薄膜中局部圆锥区域（FCD）的组织中的作用。我们演示了将FCD和旋错组装成层次结构的新方法。当液晶加热到向列相时，我们观察到在特定位置形成稳定的缺陷线。产生这些缺陷是为了满足锚固条件和边界所施加的限制几何形状。一旦液晶冷却到近晶A相，旋错保持其位置，但是在它们之间会出现面向相反方向的可逆FCD的周期性结构。我们报告了这些FCD的大小与其偏心率与界面形态之间的相关性。这项工作为创建新的程序铺平了道路，以控制功能性纳米材料组装为可调谐组件，这些组件可能在包括光电和光子应用在内的能源技术领域中具有重要意义。