LCE Cones

Mechanically programmed ‘point-1’ defects that are very common in the LCE literature. Typically these are programmed by creating rings of azimuthal alignment in an LCE film which want to contract along the azimuth and elongate along the radial direction resulting in a 2D to 3D transformation. In this scenario an LCE film was 3D printed and the film was poked with a tootpick four times to create the cones and then UV cured.