Fig. 5: Assessment of structure stability via electrostatic calculations.

a Comparison of the local field for the initial structure (top) and the structure after relaxation (bottom) in the central region \(\left(-0.7P/4 < x < 0.7P/4\right)\) as depicted in (c) for \({\beta }^{2}=10\) and \(\varepsilon=100\). The x and z coordinates are given in units of \({\xi }_{b}=63{{{{{\rm{nm}}}}}}.\) b Comparison of the structure before and after minimization in the central region for \({\beta }^{2}=10\) and \(\varepsilon=100\). The initial structure is given by the angles \({\vartheta }_{{in}}\left(x,\, z\right)\) and \({\phi }_{{in}}\left(x,\, z\right)=0\) as described in Eq. 3 and Eq. 4 of the Supplementary Note VI. Angles in the plot are given in radians. c Sketch of the splay section corresponding to the local fields shown in (a). d Dtmm simulations corresponding to the relaxed structure defined by the angles \(\vartheta (x,\, z)\) and \(\phi (x,\, z)\) shown in (b) as observed between crossed polarizers (crossed white arrows) when oriented parallel to them or with the sample rotated 20°.