(648f) Shear-Driven Reconfigurable Dipole Lattice in Confinement for Flow Tracking and Memory Storage in Liquid Crystals

The manipulation of polar order in liquid crystals (LCs) through geometric confinement has opened new avenues for designing responsive materials with programmable functionalities. We present an innovative approach where nematic LCs, confined within micropillar arrays, form a reconfigurable dipole lattice, exhibiting unique flow-responsive behavior. By introducing an immiscible fluid in contact with the LC, we induce topological defects that interact to create elastic dipoles, which align and reorient under shear flow. This dynamic reorientation not only allows for the tracking of flow profiles but also enables the encoding and modulation of directional information. The system’s behavior is akin to that of a planar spin system, where dipole−dipole interactions govern lattice dynamics. Remarkably, the encoded information can be stored, erased, and reconfigured, leveraging a multi-memory effect based on shear-induced alignment. The study provides foundational insights into controlling flow-driven topological transitions in confined systems, paving the way for the development of soft matter platforms with tunable interfacial transport properties.