Novel stripe textures in nonchiral hexatic liquid-crystal films

A novel macroscopic stripe texture has been observed in freely suspended films of nonchiral liquid crystal, uniform stripes of alternating molecular orientation form spontaneously at the smectic-C--to--surface-hexatic phase transition and broaden with decreasing temperature. The stripes are identified as splay domains whose formation is attributed to the polar symmetry of the hexatic surface layers. Transverse (director bend) walls, which lead to an additional modulation of the basic one-dimensional pattern, are manifested inside thick circular islands as twelve-armed star defects.