Boundary symmetry-stabilized memory in mono-layered cholesteric capsules

The bistable memory of a cholesteric liquid crystal often disappears owing to the unstable orientation of the focal conic state. We demonstrated the stabilization of the memory by controlling the boundary symmetry of a mono-layered cholesteric liquid crystal capsules which were fabricated with a membrane filter. It was found that the focal conic memory state with a random orientation of the helical axes became more stable in the capsules with higher boundary symmetry. With the same principle, the planar memory state with a lower symmetric orientation of the helical axes became more stable in the capsules with lower symmetry.