Gaining control through frustration: two-fold approach for Liquid Crystal three-dimensional command layers.

The alignment of Liquid Crystal (LC) molecules, essential for their applications in optical devices such as displays, is usually controlled by functionalizing their confining surfaces by either patterning or by specific surfactants that induce either parallel or perpendicular molecular arrangement. Inducing a bistable alignment, such as in the new zenithal bistable displays, offers new opportunities in terms of new functionalities and lower energy consumption but a full understanding of such bistable alignment appears still complicated. Here we present a simple phenomenological model that includes surface topography and chemistry. The predicted orientational transitions and bistable states are in excellent agreement with experiments, thus making this a proper tool to design multistable 3D command layers.