  We study viscous fingering of an air-nematic interface in a radial Hele-Shaw
cell when periodically switching on and off an electric field, which reorients
the nematic and thus changes its viscosity, as well as the surface tension and
its anisotropy (mainly enforced by a single groove in the cell). We observe
undulations at the sides of the fingers which correlate with the switching
frequency and with tip oscillations which give maximal velocity to smallest
curvatures. These lateral undulations appear to be decoupled from spontaneous
(noise-induced) side branching. We conclude that the lateral undulations are
generated by successive relaxations between two limiting finger widths. The
change between these two selected pattern scales is mainly due to the change in
the anisotropy. This scenario is confirmed by numerical simulations in the
channel geometry, using a phase-field model for anisotropic viscous fingering.
