Alignment-induced reconfigurable walls for patterning and assembly of liquid crystal skyrmions

Skyrmions have attracted rapidly growing interest due to their topological properties and unique aspects for potential novel applications such as data storage and soft robotics. They can also serve as key elements for materials by design, self-assembly, and functional soft materials. While not real particles, these skyrmions behave like particles-they interact with each other and can be actuated by means of electric field, surface anchoring, and light. On the other hand, they are field configurations which have properties not possessed by real particles. Here, we show that, by means of alignment induced attractive and repulsive walls, skyrmions in chiral nematic liquid crystals can be precisely controlled and programmed to serve as suitable building blocks for the realization of the above goals. Our work may stimulate new experimental efforts and concomitant applications in this direction.