{
  "abstract": "Nematic liquid crystals confined in cylindrical pores adopt multiple stable director topologies --- radial, escaped, and arches --- each imprinting a distinct optical signature on transmitted circularly polarized light, with topological charge set by the projected director winding number, $\\ell = 2m$. Using Landau--de Gennes and Jones-calculus modeling validated against micron-scale experiments, we show that this mechanism persists as the pore diameter shrinks toward the optical wavelength. However, full-wave Maxwell simulations of periodic sub-wavelength pore arrays reveal that the resulting vortex is a near-field phenomenon only: each topology imprints a distinguishable phase-singular signature --- differing in core multiplicity, core width, and ring amplitude --- directly below the pore array, but this signature does not survive propagation into the far field, where diffraction and inter-pore interference erase it within about one wavelength. Landau--de Gennes simulations further demonstrate that an applied electric field switches the pore between topologies, and hence between their near-field optical signatures. Because each topology is locally stable, sub-wavelength NLC pore arrays constitute an electrically reconfigurable, non-volatile platform for topology-encoded near-field optical readout, with potential application to optical labeling and anti-counterfeiting.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.40123",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Claire Doré"
    },
    {
      "name": "Brian Edwards"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nader Engheta"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kathleen J. Stebe"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ehjy59p6akd3w.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.40123",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "ehjy59p6akd3w",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40123",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.soft"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.optics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.40123",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ehjy59p6akd3w.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:28Z",
      "native_id": "2610.40123",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40123"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.soft",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.optics",
      "subfield": "optics-photonics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Multistable nematic liquid crystal pores as reconfigurable optical vortex metasurfaces",
  "title_text": "Multistable nematic liquid crystal pores as reconfigurable optical vortex metasurfaces",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:47Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/ehjy59p6akd3w",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}