Extended Data Fig. 3: Effect of micropillar spacing on the orientation of elastic dipoles.

Polarized light micrographs showing LCs confined in a micropillar array with pillar pitch of (a–c) 50 µm and (d–i) 100 µm, observed (a, d) in the air and (b,c,e-i) under a water droplet. Micrographs were captured (b,f) after the nematic−isotropic−nematic transition, (e) immediately after water droplet placement, and (c,g-i) after sliding the water droplet towards (c,g) 6 o’clock, (h) 8 o’clock and (i) 7 o’clock. Single-headed arrows indicate the orientation of elastic dipoles, with the arrow color representing the orientation defined in Extended Data Fig. 2a. White disks represent the vacancies (micropillars without an associated defect). In (b), yellow single-headed arrows indicate half-integer charge defects. In (e,i), white single-headed arrows show elastic dipole orientation towards 3, 7 and 9 o’clock, not covered by the six orientations defined in Extended Data Fig. 2a. Crossed double-headed arrows indicate the direction of the crossed polarizers.