Non-resonant Forcing in Rayleigh-B\'enard Convection

We report experiments on spatially forced Rayleigh-B\'enard convection in a large aspect ratio cell. The stability region of forced straight rolls in the parameter space spanned by the reduced Rayleigh number and the forcing wavenumber is determined and compared to the theoretical prediction. Intriguing patterns found away from the stability region such as localized coherent states and ``brick-wall'' patterns are described in detail.