Fig. 6. Twisting and bending behavior in chimeric microposts.

(A) Schematic of chimeric microposts. Bi-domain microposts are constructed with a vertical director at the base and a tilted director in the top half (green), as well as the reverse geometry, with the tilted director at the base (blue). Tilted (yellow) and vertical (purple) monodomain microposts are presented for comparison. (B) Micropost twisting angle versus incident azimuthal angle. The light source is at a polar angle of 86° from vertical. A tilted nematic in the bottom half (blue points) reduces the total twisting by 50% relative to the homogeneous tilted nematic (yellow points), as only half of the post is twisting. Placing the tilted nematic in the top half (green points) further reduces twisting as the bending at the base moves the top half out of the path of incident light. (C) Post with vertical director in anchored bottom half. The incident azimuthal angle is 125°. The post bends toward the light at the base and twists in the top half. (D) Bending angle as a function of azimuthal angle of incident light. The deflection angle at the top of the post is larger when the vertical director is in the free top half versus when it is in the constrained bottom half. (E) Deflection in the xy plane, measured at the top of the post. Bending at the base (green points) leads to a greater deflection than bending that begins halfway up the post (blue points). Both cases result in greater deflection than for a homogeneously tilted director (yellow points) but less than that of a vertical director (purple points). (F) Post with tilted director in anchored bottom half. The incident azimuthal angle is 125°. The post twists at its base and bends toward the light in the top half.