We study the phase diagram of director structures in cholesteric liquid crystals of negative dielectric anisotropy in homeotropic cells of thickness $d$ which is smaller than the cholesteric pitch $p$. The basic control parameters are the frustration ratio $d∕p$ and the applied voltage $U$. Upon increasing $U$, the direct transition from completely unwound homeotropic structure to the translationally invariant configuration (TIC) with uniform in-plane twist is observed at small $d∕p⪅0.5$. Cholesteric fingers that can be either isolated or arranged periodically occur at $0.5⪅d∕p<1$ and at the intermediate $U$ between the homeotropic unwound and TIC structures. The phase boundaries are also shifted by (1) rubbing of homeotropic substrates that produces small deviations from the vertical alignment; (2) particles that become nucleation centers for cholesteric fingers; (3) voltage driving schemes. A novel reentrant behavior of TIC is observed in the rubbed cells with frustration ratios $0.6⪅d∕p⪅0.75$, which disappears with adding nucleation sites or using modulated voltages. In addition, fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy (FCPM) allows us to directly and unambiguously determine the three-dimensional director structures. For the cells with strictly vertical alignment, FCPM confirms the director models of the vertical cross sections of four types of fingers previously either obtained by computer simulations or proposed using symmetry considerations. For rubbed homeotropic substrates, only two types of fingers are observed, which tend to align along the rubbing direction. Finally, the new means of control are of importance for potential applications of the cholesteric structures, such as switchable gratings based on periodically arranged fingers and eyewear with tunable transparency based on TIC.

• Received 3 October 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.72.061707