Droplets nucleation in smectic-C* free-standing films

The behavior of freely suspended smectic-C* (SmC*) films at the bulk Smecti c-C*-cholesteric (N*) phase transition has been investigated. According to our experimental observations, the heating of the SmC* free-standing film a bove the bulk SmC*-N* phase transition can give rise to conventional layer thinning transitions or to nucleation of N* droplets trapped inside the fil m. The optical texture observations show that a N* droplets confined in the Sm C* host phase are accompanied by topological defects, Due to the boundary c ondition fixed by the anisotropic host phase elastic interactions between d roplet-defect pairs appear. These interactions drive the self-organization of the droplet-defect pairs in chain-like structures. In this paper. we pre sent the experimental conditions acting on the droplet nucleation process a nd on the droplet chaining.