Fig. 3.

Preparation steps and the polarized micrograph of assembled sliding cell. a Preparation steps of patterned photoalignment cell with sliding substrates. b Polarzied optical micrograph of the assembled cell immediately after the top substrate was slid to form the desired configuration of overlapped photoalignment patterns. The lack of coloration indicates the thickness of the liquid crystal layer is still larger than 30 μm. The disclination lines in the central rectangle are still intact, which begin to annihilate as the LC layer thins. The disclination lines are more susceptible to bending in a thick LC layer than at later stages with a thinner LC layer, generally due to the weakening of some of the stabilizing forces with the increase in the thickness