Figure 3. Director configurations in the vertical cross-section of the NLC cell.

(a) FCPM texture of the vertical cross-section (xz) of a homeotropic cell of thickness d=20 μm filled with MCL-6815; the probing laser beam is polarized along the direction P; scale bar is 20 μm. The inset on the left-hand side shows a conoscopic Maltese cross. The temperature is fixed at −15 °C. (b) FCPM texture of the vertical cross-section (xz) of the same cell, during cooling from −15 to −25 °C, with the rate ξ=−30 °C min⁻¹. (c) The fluorescence signal intensity as a function of the vertical coordinate z for the initial state. (d) The same for the thermally contracted state; the z-dependence of the FCPM signal show two pronounced maxima and three minima, near the bounding plates and in the middle plane. (e) The reconstructed director profile in the homeotropic state at fixed T=−15 °C. (f) The reconstructed bow-shaped director profile in the cooling-induced tilted state at t=8 s.