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Smectic films in a collapsing catenoid develop spontaneous wrinkling patterns like solid sheets.
Smectic freely-suspended films can wrinkle like solid sheets. This has been demonstrated earlier with shape-fluctuating smectic bubbles. Here, we exploit the collapse of smectic catenoid films with a central equatorial film to expose the latter to rapid lateral compression. Wrinkle formation is observed in the planar film and the thickness dependence of the undulation wavelength is measured. In addition to the central film, its border undergoes an undulation instability as well.
We investigate micrometer-sized flat droplets consisting of an isotropic core surrounded by a nematic rim in freely suspended smectic A liquid-crystal films. In contrast to purely isotropic droplets which are characterized by a sharp edge and no long-range interactions, the nematic fringe introduces a continuous film thickness change resulting in long-range mutual attraction of droplets. The coalescence scenario is divided in two phases. The first one consists in the fusion of the nematic regions. The second phase involves the dissolution of a thin nematic film between the two isotropic cores. The latter has many similarities with the rupture of thin liquid films between droplets coalescing in an immiscible viscous liquid.
Coalescence of biphasic droplets in free-standing smectic films is controlled in part by the rupture of a thin nematic membrane separating the isotropic droplet cores.