Droplets and droplet lattices on freely suspended smectic films in microgravity*

Free-standing bubbles of smectic A liquid crystals with film thicknesses of few nanometers were explored under microgravity conditions on the International Space Station (ISS) to analyse the behaviour of liquid inclusions in the films. Microdroplets created in the films self-organize into nearly regular triangular lattices. We analyse the lattice parameters and droplet dynamics to understand fundamentals of hydrodynamics in quasi-twodimensional systems and to extract smectic material parameters.