Curved boundaries and chiral instabilities – two sources of twist in homeotropic nematic tori

Abstract

In a recent series of experiments, we have shown that 5CB confined to tori and bent cylindrical capillaries with homeotropic boundary conditions also adopts a twisted escaped radial texture resulting from the curved nature of the confining boundaries. As the torus becomes more curved, the ideal location for the escaped core approaches the inner radius of the torus.