Fabrication of Chiral Liquid Crystal Pinwheel Arrays Through Capillarity-Assisted Particle Assembly

Nucleation of the phase transition in liquid crystals (LCs) is influenced by elastic distortions around topological defects. While conventional studies have focused on isotropic-LC transitions upon cooling, nucleation in chiral LCs is investigated using colloidal arrays produced by capillarity-assisted particle assembly (CAPA) upon heating to spatially control the nucleation of the isotropic phase rather than that of the LC phase, enabling the fabrication of chiral pinwheel arrays. Optical analysis and Landau-de Gennes simulations reveal that pinwheel arrays arise from the interplay of LC chirality, planar anchoring conditions at the isotropic-LC boundary, and boojum defects on the particles. By manipulating particle placement and employing photopolymerizable LCs, dual alternating chiral and stabilized pinwheel arrays are realized. This work provides insights into chirality-driven phase transitions upon heating and offers a new strategy for designing LC materials with controlled anisotropic and chiral architectures.