Stress-induced and anchoring-programmed smectic layer architectures

The large-area architecture of ordered stimuli-responsive systems is of vital importance in nanotechnology and functional materials. However, the entropy-driven self-organization of soft matters remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we adopt mechanical stress to regulate the layered structures of smectic A liquid crystals. Direct transformation from focal conic domains (FCDs) to periodic zigzag FCDs (ZFCDs) is realized as a result of layer curvature reversion due to the tilt instability of liquid crystal molecules and dislocation dynamics under mechanical stress. By further introducing patterned surface anchoring, unprecedented hierarchical architectures of ZFCDs are demonstrated. The deflecting, bending and even complicated manipulations of ZFCDs are presented <i>via</i> preprogramming the photoalignment patterns. Diffractions and imaging functions of two-fold rotationally symmetric dependency on the incident linear polarization are verified. This work provides a new versatile method for hierarchical architectures of smectic layered systems. It extends our knowledge of soft matters and may inspire intriguing applications in advanced optics and photonics.