Stripe-to-Droplet Transition in an Organic Monolayer: Quenched Connectivity

A (reversible) stripe-to-droplet transition has been investigated in a near-critical, two-dimensional binary mixture of amphiphiles, confined to a monomolecular film at an air-water interface. Initiated in a disordered stripe phase of fluctuating connectivity, the transition generates droplet patterns whose topological and geometrical properties are shown to be determined by the quenched connectivity inherited from the stripe patterns. The most dramatic topological aspects of this quenched disorder are the appearance of nested domains and the formation of pseudominority and pseudomajority phases.